Banks Make Killing Stablecoin Yields Their Top 2026 Priority
The American Bankers Association is pressing Congress to curb interest-like payments on payment stablecoins, while issuers argue stablecoins are neutral financial infrastructure.
The American Bankers Association (ABA) placed stablecoin rewards at the top of its 2026 policy agenda, framing digital-dollar incentive programs as a threat to deposit bases and community lending capacity. The ABA’s newly released Blueprint for Growth explicitly urges Congress to act to “stop payment stablecoins from becoming deposit substitutes” by prohibiting payment of interest, yield or similar rewards on payment stablecoins [1].
Stablecoin issuers pushed back at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire called banks’ concerns “totally absurd” and argued stablecoins function as shared financial infrastructure rather than branded payment products competing for deposits; Circle has positioned stablecoins as neutral rails that can partner with banks and card networks rather than replace them [5][3][6].
The disagreement sets up a clear policy clash for 2026: banking trade groups are seeking legislative limits on interest-like stablecoin rewards to protect deposits and local lending, while issuers are seeking recognition of stablecoins as interoperable infrastructure for payments and money movement [1][6].
With the ABA asking Congress to restrict rewards on payment stablecoins and issuers reframing those tokens as infrastructure, stablecoin regulation is poised to be a central regulatory and industry debate in 2026 [1][5][6].
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Citations
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- 1Banks Make Killing Stablecoin Yields Their Top 2026 PriorityCryptoNews• Jan 23, 2026
- 3Why Circle Judges the Fears About Stablecoins as “Totally Absurd”Cointribune• Jan 23, 2026
- 5Banks’ Concerns Over Stablecoin Interest Payments Are ‘Totally Absurd’, Circle CEO SaysBitcoinist• Jan 23, 2026
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