Republican senators on the Senate Banking Committee reportedly pressed White House Crypto Council Executive Director Patrick Witt on Thursday to publicly release a study by the Council of Economic Advisers examining stablecoin yield and its potential impact on bank deposits.
Sources familiar with the report say its findings lean positive for crypto, potentially undermining the banking lobby’s core argument that stablecoin rewards threaten deposit flight and bank lending.
Where’s This Report That Could Reshape the Stablecoin Yield Debate?
Senator Thom Tillis and other Banking Committee Republicans confronted Witt during a closed-door meeting about the study, which lawmakers on the committee have been briefed on but which remains classified.
Crypto In America podcast host Eleanor Terrett reported that there has been a push for weeks within both the White House and the Senate to make the findings public.
Allegedly, the report includes economic analysis from the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), the same body whose acting chair, Pierre Yared, said publicly at the DC Blockchain Summit on March 17 that the effects of stablecoin rewards on the banking system would be “small” while the effects on stablecoin adoption “could be potentially large.”
If the full study confirms that framing, it would directly contradict the position of the American Bankers Association and allied trade groups, which have argued for months that any form of stablecoin yield would trigger deposit outflows and weaken lending capacity.
A Standard Chartered estimate previously projected that stablecoins could drive roughly $500 billion in deposit outflows by 2028.
Reportedly, some GOP senators are planning direct calls to the White House to press for the report’s release.
Bessent Signals a ‘Regulatory Reset’ for Banks
Hours before the Senate meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised a new Basel capital proposal from the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The proposal simplifies and eases capital requirements for large banks.
Bessent called the previous administration’s approach an attempt to “reverse-engineer ever-higher capital requirements without rhyme or reason.”
He described the new proposal as part of a broader “regulatory reset” that fosters “a level playing field for banks of all sizes.”
“Today’s outdated capital requirements are needlessly complex and misaligned with their actual objective. Rather than solving for safety and soundness, they are pushing lending out of the regulated banking system while simultaneously impeding economic growth,” wrote Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The timing is significant.
The administration is loosening bank capital rules while simultaneously sitting on a study that reportedly shows stablecoin yield poses minimal risk to bank deposits.
Together, these moves could remove the two pillars supporting the banking lobby’s opposition to the CLARITY Act.
The Clock Is Ticking
The stablecoin yield dispute has stalled the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act since January, when the Senate Banking Committee postponed its first markup.
Senator Lummis said earlier on March 19 that “major light bulbs were switched on” during the same meeting, describing an unexpected path forward.
Yet Witt himself left the room visibly frustrated and declined to comment, suggesting the emerging compromise may not align with the White House’s preferred approach.
Rep. Dusty Johnson, chair of the House Agriculture Digital Assets Subcommittee, estimated the Senate has roughly six weeks left to pass the bill before midterm election politics freeze legislative activity.
Releasing the CEA study could break the deadlock. Keeping it hidden preserves the ambiguity that has given the banking lobby room to stall.
Which path the White House chooses in the coming days may determine whether the crypto industry’s top legislative priority survives or dies on the Senate floor.
