White House holds 2nd stablecoin yield talks; $6T warning – Feb 2026

The White House held a second stablecoin policy meeting on Feb. 10, 2026, bringing major US banks and crypto companies into the same room to narrow disagreements over “yield” paid to stablecoin holders. The session, hosted by Patrick Witt, ended without a compromise even as participants described it as productive, leaving broader crypto market-structure legislation stuck.

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Context

The central dispute is whether stablecoin issuers or intermediaries should be allowed to deliver interest-like rewards to token holders, a feature crypto firms frame as user value and banks frame as a direct threat to deposits. The argument intensified after banking leaders publicly warned that yield-bearing stablecoins could pull funds out of the traditional system and reduce banks’ lending capacity.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan tied that risk to a concrete number, warning that interest-bearing stablecoins could take “$6 trillion in deposits” out of banks. Crypto firms counter that the legal line should focus on what issuers do directly, while allowing platforms to compete with reward programs that resemble deposit-rate pass-through.

Details

Reports said the Feb. 10 meeting included Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo on the banking side and Coinbase, Circle, Tether, and Ripple on the crypto side. Patrick Witt, described as the Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Digital Assets, hosted the session.

Participants described the talks as productive, but they did not reach agreement on how to handle stablecoin rewards and interest-like payments. “Productive session at the White House today – compromise is in the air,” said Stuart Alderoty, Chief Legal Officer at Ripple, in a Feb. 10 statement cited in meeting coverage.

Industry representatives also reported that banks held firm. “Banks did not come to negotiate from the bill text, instead arriving with broad prohibitive principles, which remains a key disagreement,” said Dan Spuller, Industry Affairs Lead at the Blockchain Association, in a Feb. 10 statement cited alongside the recap.

Impact

The policy fight lands on real balance sheets because stablecoins already sit at massive scale. As of Feb. 10, 2026, Tether’s USDT market cap was listed at $184.28 billion, with $80.82 billion in 24-hour trading volume.

For crypto platforms, rewards connect directly to distribution and revenue. Coinbase’s stablecoin revenue was reported at $355 million in Q3 2025, nearly 20% of total revenue, raising the stakes for any rule that limits yield-like programs.

For banks, the deposit-outflow argument remains the core objection, with Moynihan’s “$6 trillion” warning frequently cited as shorthand for systemic risk. Several reports framed the clash as a growing contest between traditional finance and crypto-native business models, rather than a narrow technical dispute.

Next Steps

Multiple reports described an end-of-February negotiating window for language that can unblock progress on broader market-structure legislation, warning that a prolonged stalemate risks delaying action in Congress.

The definitional problem also remains unresolved: the GENIUS Act is widely discussed as banning issuers from paying interest directly, while arguments persist over whether exchanges and other intermediaries can still offer rewards via revenue-sharing or similar structures.

If the sides fail to converge, the uncertainty will continue to hang over major issuers such as Circle and Tether, and over DeFi products that rely on yield-bearing stablecoin flows.

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P.S. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Always conduct your own research and make independent decisions.