Crypto and Big Banks Fight Over Who Gets to Fleece You

Wall Street and the crypto industry are engaged in a legislative battle over which business interests will get to fleece more of their customers’ money, with big banks hoping to close a loophole that allows cryptocurrencies to pay interest to investors.

Nonprofit Stand With Crypto, which was set up by the cryptocurrency company Coinbase, holds a get-out-the-vote rally in Hollywood, featuring the rapper Nas

Brian Armstrong, CEO of crypto company Coinbase, speaks at the Stand With Crypto rally to get out the vote on Monday, March 4, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)


Wall Street and Silicon Valley are embroiled in a legislative slugfest over which business interests will get to fleece more of their customers’ money.

A loophole under current law allows stablecoins — crypto tokens pegged to the US dollar — to essentially pay interest on their investors’ holdings, similar to a bank account except without the same regulatory guardrails.

This carve-out could lure depositors away from banks’ savings accounts — a move that would threaten a multitrillion-dollar scheme by the banking industry in recent years, in which they’ve paid minuscule interest on customers’ financial deposits while enjoying far higher interest rates from the country’s central bank and pocketing the difference.

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