A White House meeting aimed at unfreezing the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act, which touches on the controversial topic of stablecoin yields, said they were making progress in negotiations as the legislation still struggles to advance in the U.S. Senate.
Monday’s meeting, chaired by President Donald Trump’s crypto czar David Sachs, aimed to address some sticking points in the legislation, including whether stablecoins should be tied to earnings and rewards. Policy experts from the cryptocurrency industry and Wall Street banks gathered in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room for more than two hours to discuss how to revise the bill’s most thorny provisions, according to people familiar with the matter.
People familiar with the matter said talks would continue, so tough negotiations did not cause participants to walk away from the table.
Cody Carbone, director of lobbying for cryptocurrency policy at the Digital Chamber of Commerce in Washington, called the meeting “exactly the kind of progress needed to address one of the biggest issues holding back progress on market structure legislation.”
“Doing nothing is not an option, and we are committed to rolling up our sleeves and working hard to ensure that legislative advances do not penalize innovators or consumers who view digital assets as the foundation of their financial future,” Carbone said in a statement after the meeting.
Legislation to regulate the U.S. cryptocurrency market has been making its way through the congressional process, having passed the House of Representatives last year and clearing one of two necessary Senate committees last week. What remains remains a complex series of legislative steps, including advancing through the Senate Banking Committee. It was the committee’s work that first highlighted several points of disagreement in multiparty negotiations involving Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the cryptocurrency industry, bankers and the White House.
The debate over stablecoin yields is one between the digital asset space and traditional bankers, who believe such yields could disastrously compete with the deposit-taking business at the heart of U.S. banks and credit. But Democrats have also made other demands, including anti-corruption provisions targeting Trump’s cryptocurrency business, requiring the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to have bipartisan commissioners, and tougher illegal financial protections to prevent the industry from facilitating crime.
Democrats’ push for ethics provisions to prevent top government officials from profiting from cryptocurrencies could become more complicated after a Wall Street Journal report said a United Arab Emirates intelligence chief secretly bought nearly half of the shares of Trump-linked World Liberty Financial Inc.
As the White House hosts Monday’s meeting, the federal government is once again in a partial shutdown as Congress is unable to approve a funding package. That raises questions about how much work White House and congressional staff can accomplish on these issues while the government is shut down. Negotiations are reportedly coming to a head on Tuesday over a plan that could reopen the government while leaving room for a separate debate on Department of Homeland Security spending.
Trump urged House members to sign legislation to reopen the government without further changes.
“We need to keep the government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me in supporting this bill and sending it to my desk immediately,” the president said in a social media post. “Nothing can change at this time.”
Read more: Cryptocurrency bill clears US Senate milestone despite Democratic opposition
