Coinbase Bets on Stablecoins as Crypto Bill Looms

by

In the waning light of another winter, with the calendar’s fifteenth day looming like a distant frost on the window, Coinbase presses forward to offer rewards for those who harbor stablecoins. The company’s chief, Brian Armstrong, has already spoken of a certain unease toward provisions whispered by legislators, a blend of caution and candidness that makes even the internet seem old-fashioned. And so, as if in a chess game with the future, the exchange proclaims that this feature is indispensable to its own existence, the backbone of its business model, if not a stubborn bread in the oven of modern finance. 😏

Concerns About the Bill’s Reach

Bloomberg’s correspondent tells us that the restrictions now under debate would be woven into the crypto market-structure bill. The observer notes that Coinbase might reconsider its support should the law creep beyond mere disclosure to lay down tighter fetters on stablecoin rewards. The mood among merchants is not a trumpet call but a wary whisper, a reminder that power, when it speaks of transparency, might also murmur of restraint.

Some lawmakers contemplate curbing rewards to only those institutions under regulation. Banks murmur that such rewards could siphon deposits away from traditional lenders, a thought that would sour the tea of many a small-town banker. In a letter, the American Bankers Association writes-sarcasm dressed in velvet: “If billions are displaced from community bank lending, small businesses, farmers, students, and home buyers in towns like ours will suffer. Crypto exchanges and the constellation of stablecoin-affiliated companies are not designed to fill the lending gap, nor can they offer FDIC-insured products, a point they omit from their persuasive advertising.”

Yet the promoters of crypto-native enterprises, ever nimble, push back with a quiet insistence that to confine rewards to chartered institutions would dull the competitive edge and invite stagnation.

Coinbase, for its part, has filed for a national trust charter, a bureaucratic parchment that would let it offer rewards under regulation. Other market players, such as World Liberty Financial, have pursued similar tracks, perhaps seeking the same horizon: a realm where rewards can be earned with a clean ledger and a clear conscience. 🕊️

The Significance of Stablecoins to Coinbase

Stablecoins, those tethered promises, yield a real revenue stream for the exchange. Coinbase and Circle share a portion of the interest earned on reserves backing USDC, a coin that behaves better than the weather in early spring. The sense of USDC’s presence reads like a cautious arithmetic of modern commerce: a stable peg, a market cap of about $74.58 billion, a 24-hour volume near $9.03 billion, and a 0.1% 24-hour volatility that makes even the wildest rumor seem tame. The balance sheets, however, are there, and they hum in the margins.

To coax users toward adoption, Coinbase offers rewards around 3.5% on USDC balances for certain fortunate customers. Bloomberg estimates suggest stablecoin-related revenue blossomed to roughly $1.3 billion in 2025. If the forthcoming bill tightens or bans these incentives, fewer souls may keep stablecoins on the platform, and revenue will not smile as it once did. 😅

Ultimately, the consequence will be written by the bill’s exact language. The benches of lawmakers seem poised to craft rules about stablecoin rewards, a matter that remains a central topic of conversation between regulators and the crypto industry-the sort of discourse where every phrase matters, and yet no sentence seems to breathe easy.

Read More

2026-01-12 12:44