The two U.S. senators negotiating a controversial provision in the crypto industry’s market structure bill — Republican Thom Tillis and Democrat Angela Alsobrooks — have reportedly agreed on a compromise that could advance the industry’s top priority to the next stage in the Senate.
Connor Lounsbury, Alsobrooks’ communications director, told CoinDesk in a statement that the lawmakers had reached an “agreement in principle.”
“The Senators plan to consult industry stakeholders to solicit feedback,” Lounsbury said. “This is an important step forward for market structure legislation, a step that both have worked for months to resolve. Of course, there are still outstanding issues in the wider legislation — including ethics and illicit finance — that still need resolution to secure a broad, bipartisan vote in the Banking Committee.”
The lawmakers had worked toward an agreement “that both protects innovation in this emerging technology as well as protects against the deposit flight concerns raised by many on both sides of the aisle,” Lounsbury added.
The two were reported by Politico to have agreed in principle on an approach to stablecoin yield in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, and that potentially knocks down one of the top unresolved issues in the wide-ranging bill. Still, no further details emerged, other than Alsobrooks reiterating that the yield accord would bar rewards on passive balances of stablecoins.
A person familiar with the negotiations told CoinDesk that details were not expected to be circulated among stakeholders — that is, the crypto and banking industries — before Monday.
Bankers had argued that stablecoin rewards on holdings of the U.S. dollar-tied tokens could closely resemble interest on bank deposits, and any threat to that core component of U.S. banking could put lending at risk. Both Alsobrooks and Tillis had agreed to find an approach that wouldn’t threaten banking.
“Sen. Tillis and I do have an agreement in principle,” Alsobrooks told Politico on Friday. “We’ve come a long way. And I think what it will do is to allow us to protect innovation, but also gives us the opportunity to prevent widespread deposit flight.”
The White House was reviewing updated legislative text on Thursday, CoinDesk previously reported. White House officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the Friday development.
Industry insiders have told CoinDesk that they were aware of a new compromise, but they haven’t yet seen the legislative text that the senators agreed on.
Though the stablecoin question was at the forefront of the Clarity Act negotiations, there remain a number of other points to iron out, including the bill’s treatment of decentralized finance (DeFi), a corner of the sector in which some Democrats had expressed unease over illicit finance.
Lawmakers have suggested in recent days that the Clarity Act could get a Senate Banking Committee hearing late next month. If it’s approved there, it advances toward the Senate floor, though it first needs to be melded with a similar version that already passed in the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, the Republican atop the banking panel’s crypto subcommittee, said earlier this week she expected a hearing in the latter half of April. She posted on image Friday on social media site X that depict a “yield” sign.
Advocates have been hoping for a May resolution of the years-long legislative effort. But Senate floor time is at a premium, and it’s under some threat from unrelated issues, such as the Republican’s voter-ID bill and the back-and-forth over the war in Iran.
Read More: Key U.S. senator on crypto market structure bill negotiation: ‘We think we’ve got it’
UPDATE (March 20, 2026, 19:36 UTC): Adds quote from Senator Alsobrooks and tweet from Senator Lummis.
UPDATE (March 20, 22:51 UTC): Adds detail.
UPDATE (March 21, 01:50 UTC): Adds quote from Connor Lounsbury.
