Goldman's Boss Ghosts Wall Street's Stablecoin Yield Meltdown, Backs CLARITY Act 🏦

Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon has publicly thrown his weight behind the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, breaking ranks with much of the traditional banking sector as the long-awaited crypto market-structure bill moves closer to a possible U.S. Senate floor vote. In comments to Politico, Solomon said he is "very supportive of moving the Clarity Act forward, so we can get some market structure in place and start to move the innovation process along." Solomon acknowledged the legislation is far from flawless, telling Politico that, "like all legislation," the bill "is not perfect" and that "there are lots of things that you could debate and argue about." He argued its central value lies in creating "a level playing field to enhance market stability and allow these markets to develop appropriately," and suggested the framework could draw more institutional players into crypto markets.

Solomon's stance sets him apart from the broader banking industry, which has spent months fighting provisions governing stablecoin yield. Crypto companies such as Coinbase have for years offered rewards on certain stablecoin balances, such as the Circle-issued USDC, with yields ranging between 3–5% APY—well above what banks typically offer on traditional savings accounts. That practice was, in a roundabout way, effectively codified into law with the passage of the GENIUS Act last year, and bank lobbyists have since pushed to remove it, viewing the CLARITY Act as their opening to close what they characterize as a loophole. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been the loudest critic, arguing in a May appearance on Fox Business that letting crypto firms pay rewards on dollar-pegged tokens without bank-equivalent oversight would hand them an unfair edge. "The banks will not accept it that way," he said at the time.

Republican lawmakers released the latest text of the CLARITY Act on Wednesday, including a new ethics provision that restricts the president and his family from engaging in cryptocurrency business activities. The restriction, however, is written to expire. Senate leaders had not scheduled a vote as of Thursday, and Republicans will need Democratic support to clear the 60-vote threshold. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said on Wednesday that "the bill goes even further to protect the President's crypto profits by barring the next Department of Justice from ever holding Trump accountable," adding that "the underlying bill still fails to adequately protect investors, our financial system, and our national security. This bill should be dead on arrival."

Solomon's endorsement aligns him with crypto industry executives including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, both of whom have pushed for the legislation to advance. The bill, if passed and signed into law, would formally legalize most cryptocurrency activity in the United States by classifying most crypto assets as non-securities and outside the purview of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, while also protecting decentralized software developers and addressing the practice of offering rewards on stablecoin balances.