Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told Fox Business on August 13 that she wants Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. "We would like to see a good bill go through," she said, even as she and other major bank executives continue to negotiate changes to the bill's stablecoin reward provisions. The remarks came with the Senate on recess until September 13 and a critical procedural vote scheduled for September 15, leaving the most sweeping US crypto bill to reach the Senate floor in a precarious position.

The CLARITY Act is a 616-page bill that would establish how the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission divide oversight of digital assets, set rules for decentralized finance protocols, establish developer protections, and resolve ambiguities left behind by the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin-specific law President Trump signed in July 2025. The bill passed the House in July 2025 by a 294 to 134 margin and cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15 to 9 in May 2026. To advance in the full Senate, it needs 60 votes, meaning bipartisan support is required.

The Rewards Dispute

The central sticking point is whether stablecoin issuers or affiliated platforms can pay holders something resembling interest. The GENIUS Act banned stablecoin issuers from paying direct yield but left a gap: it said nothing about whether a third party, such as a crypto exchange, could offer reward payments on stablecoin balances it holds. The current Senate compromise text attempts a middle path. It would permit rewards tied to actual payment transactions, similar in structure to credit card cashback programs, while prohibiting passive yield for users who simply hold a stablecoin without transacting.

Banks argue this distinction does not go far enough. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been the most outspoken critic of the current draft. "No, because it allows them to effectively pay interest on deposits, stablecoins or something like that, without protection that they should have," Dimon said in late May 2026, in remarks reported by CoinDesk. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan has also weighed in, telling crypto firms to "just be a bank" if they want to offer yield-like products, according to Crypto Briefing.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has pushed back, arguing in public statements that the banking industry is using the regulatory process to protect its own deposit base rather than address any genuine risk to consumers.

The stablecoin rewards dispute is not the only obstacle. Lawmakers have also not resolved questions about ethics rules for members of Congress who hold crypto assets, how regulatory turf should be divided between the SEC and the CFTC, and how to classify and regulate participants in decentralized finance protocols.

Citi's Own Position Is Complicated

Fraser's public support for the bill sits alongside Citi's own ambitions in the stablecoin space. In July 2026, she confirmed the bank is actively exploring the issuance of a Citi stablecoin for corporate clients, alongside tokenized deposit services designed for 24-hour settlement. Citi Ventures has also invested in BVNK, a stablecoin payments startup with operations in Africa and the United Kingdom. Separately, Citi is part of a nine-bank consortium, including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Bank of America, MUFG, Santander, TD Bank, and UBS, working on a shared stablecoin backed by G7 currencies. Citi is also among the backers, alongside JPMorgan and Bank of America, of a shared tokenized deposit network operated through The Clearing House, targeting a launch in the first half of 2027. Citi's internal research arm projects that tokenized bank deposit flows could reach between $100 trillion and $140 trillion annually by 2030.

Why This Matters Outside the United States

The stakes of this legislative fight extend well beyond Wall Street. In Nigeria, the largest stablecoin market in Sub-Saharan Africa, roughly $22 billion in dollar-pegged token transactions were recorded between mid-2023 and mid-2024, accounting for about 43 percent of all crypto volume in Sub-Saharan Africa. Stablecoin transfers cost between 2 and 3 percent of transaction value, compared to the 6 to 10 percent charged by traditional remittance services. Nigeria received $19.5 billion in remittances in 2023 alone, according to the World Bank, and industry analysts warn that those flows could be disrupted if US stablecoin issuers face regulatory overreach that limits the attractiveness of dollar-pegged tokens.

In a September 2024 Castle Island Ventures survey of 2,541 users across five emerging markets, covering India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Turkey, 47 percent of respondents reported using stablecoins for remittances. Pakistan launched a regulatory sandbox for stablecoin remittance providers in late 2025, partly in anticipation of a clearer US framework, approving three providers for pilots under the program.

If the Senate's stricter version of the stablecoin rewards ban prevails, US-regulated platforms may be forced to strip features that make dollar-pegged tokens attractive as savings tools for users in countries with high inflation or currency instability. That outcome could accelerate adoption of non-US-issued stablecoins, particularly USDT, which already commands roughly 58 percent of the global stablecoin market and dominates retail flows across Africa and Asia.

What Comes Next

The stablecoin market has grown to approximately $314 to $321 billion in total capitalization, nearly double its mid-2024 level. USDC alone processed $21.5 trillion in on-chain transaction volume during the first quarter of 2026, a 263 percent increase year over year. The scale of activity makes the September 15 cloture vote consequential. If the bill fails, the legislation almost certainly dies until a new Congress convenes in 2027, leaving the ambiguities in the GENIUS Act unresolved and the broader digital asset market framework on hold.