White House to host meeting between bank and crypto next week to discuss digital asset legislation: Reuters

The White House plans to convene a meeting next week with senior leaders from the banking and cryptocurrency sectors as lawmakers struggle to advance crypto legislation in the Senate, Reuters reported, citing three people familiar with the discussions.

The summit will be hosted by the White House's crypto council and will focus on a looming issue that has become a major snag in the Senate Banking Committee — the treatment of stablecoin rewards, Reuters reported on Wednesday. 

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. 

Tensions between banks and crypto firms have intensified in recent months over the issue. Banking trade groups have pushed back against the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin framework that cleared Congress over the summer.

While the law prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying interest directly to holders, it leaves room for third-party platforms — including exchanges like Coinbase — to offer rewards.

The Blockchain Association will be participating in the meeting, said its CEO Summer Mersinger, in a statement. 

"Congress has a clear opportunity to move past this moment and deliver durable, bipartisan rules of the road that protect consumers, foster responsible innovation, and ensure the United States remains a global leader in the next generation of financial and internet technology," Mersinger said. 

Policy divide

Bank groups have argued that a lack of clear limits could siphon deposits away, hurting community banks, while some in the crypto industry accuse banks of trying to stifle competition and say negotiations already happened before GENIUS was passed.

Washington renewed its push this past year to pass legislation that would regulate the crypto industry at large. Over the summer, the House Financial Services Committee, the House Agriculture Committee, and then the full House passed the Clarity Act, which garnered support from Democrats.

However, over the past few months, negotiations in the Senate have wobbled. Two key committees, the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, need to amend and vote on their respective bills before they can go to the full Senate floor for a vote. Both committees were initially slated to hold hearings on Jan. 15 to hold those hearings.

The Senate Banking Committee's hearing was pulled at the last minute after crypto exchange Coinbase pulled its support, citing concerns around tokenized equities and the issue at hand — how to treat stablecoin rewards.

The Senate Agriculture Committee is now set to have its hearing on Thursday, but bill text put forward last week lacked Democratic support.

The White House, meanwhile, has been pushing for quick passage of a crypto market structure bill. Last week, Patrick Witt, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, said that the U.S. needs to pass the bill promptly before it loses momentum under the current crypto-friendly administration.

"There will be a crypto market structure bill — it's a question of when, not if," the White House crypto advisor said in a post on X.

Updated at 8:15 p.m. UTC to include comments from BA CEO Summer Mersinger