Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Pushes Back on American Bankers Association: No Evidence Stablecoin Rewards Would Cause Bank Run

BlockBeats News, August 26th, Coinbase's Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad wrote an article rebutting the American Bankers Association's (ABA) concerns about stablecoin rewards. She stated that the ABA believes that stablecoin platform reward payments will lead to a loss of community bank deposits and weaken local lending, but existing data does not support this claim. Current law already allows such rewards, and Coinbase has been rewarding USDC users for over 4 years.

Shirzad pointed out that from June 2019 to March 2026, community bank deposits grew by 26%, an increase of about $482 billion; Research by Charles River Associates and the American Economic Advisors Committee similarly found no significant relationship between stablecoins and bank deposits.

The ABA's request for modifications does not concern the technical details in the CLARITY Act. The existing text prohibits users from earning returns solely on idle funds but allows rewards for actual activity; The modifications proposed by the ABA may expand restrictions to regular stablecoin use cases, and issues such as whether merchant rebates constitute bank interest would be left to regulatory agencies and litigation rulings. Shirzad called for maintaining the current compromise and passing the CLARITY Act, stating that the Act will grant banks new permissions for custody, staking, lending, payments, clearing, and market-making.