This executive summary from the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) analyzes the impact of the GENIUS Act (July 2025) and the proposed CLARITY Act, specifically focusing on the federal prohibition of "yield" or interest payments on stablecoins.
The Policy Context
The GENIUS Act requires stablecoins to be backed 1:1 by high-quality liquid assets (USD, Treasuries, etc.). It prohibits issuers from offering yield to holders, based on the concern that competitive stablecoin returns would drain deposits from traditional banks—which use fractional reserve lending—thereby crippling the national lending market.
Key Findings of the CEA Model
The CEA model challenges the theory that prohibiting yield protects the banking sector, finding the benefits to be negligible and the costs high:
Conclusion
The CEA concludes that prohibiting stablecoin yield does very little to "protect" bank lending. Instead, the policy primarily serves to deny consumers the benefits of competitive returns while incurring significant economic welfare losses. The report suggests that the fear of a stablecoin-driven "lending crisis" is unsupported by economic modeling.