The biggest outcome of the Clarity Act could be the creation of an entirely new market for “yield as a service,” according to Joe Vollono, chief commercial officer of stablecoin infrastructure company STBL.
At the center of the debate is Section 404 of the bill, which would prohibit digital asset service providers (DASPs) and their affiliates from offering a return solely based on holding a digital asset.
This provision could fundamentally reshape the way crypto users earn returns, moving the market away from passive “hold to earn” products and toward more active and compliant yield generation strategies.
“This effectively shifts the industry from a hold-to-earn market to a use-to-earn market,” Vollono told CoinDesk in an interview. “You will need compliant return strategies to generate rewards on what would otherwise be idle capital.”
The Clarity Act has already been approved by the Senate Banking Committee and is now expected to pass the full Senate to be merged with the Senate Agriculture Committee’s version of the bill before House reconciliation, with an optimistic timeline pointing to a full vote as early as July. Regulators would then have around 12 months to implement the framework.
Vollono, who spent more than seven years at Morgan Stanley and worked at SIFMA, where he worked on industry defense and market structure issues, said the implications of the Clarity Act extend far beyond the yield products themselves. According to him, regulatory clarity could finally enable large-scale institutional participation in crypto markets.
“Once these issues are resolved, it will allow large-scale capital to enter the market,” he said. “That’s the real catalyst here.”
Passage of the Clarity Act is widely seen as a potential inflection point for crypto markets, as it would establish the first comprehensive U.S. regulatory framework for digital assets, ending years of uncertainty over whether and how tokens fall under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The legislation would create clearer rules for exchanges, broker-dealers, stablecoin issuers and decentralized finance platforms, a move that many analysts say is needed before large institutional investors, banks and asset managers can commit capital on a large scale. Supporters argue that regulatory clarity could reduce legal risks, improve consumer protections, and give traditional financial companies the compliance framework needed to create crypto products and services in the United States rather than abroad.
The role of AI
The likely result, Vollono said, is the emergence of a middle layer of infrastructure providers focused on generating compliant returns. He said he expects many of these services to be powered by artificial intelligence acting as an orchestration layer for regulated capital flows.
Potential beneficiaries include decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure providers, vault custodians, collateral management platforms, automated treasury services, lending marketplaces, and reward systems.
“All of this can be automated by AI in a regulated market,” he said.
The underlying technology stack already exists, Vollono said, pointing to smart contracts, oracles, DeFi rails and API-based infrastructure that could be adapted to fit a regulated framework.
“It creates a whole new world,” he said.
Legislation
The debate around the legislation has also highlighted tensions between traditional banks and the crypto sector, particularly regarding stablecoins and deposit migration.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Vollono said. “Banks are worried about the flight of deposits, but I think this concern is greatly exaggerated. »
He said the traditional fractional-reserve banking model depends on banks maintaining large capital bases that can be loaned out to create credit and liquidity. If deposits migrate to tokenized dollars or yield-generating blockchain products, this model could come under pressure.
Vollono nevertheless said he saw the possible compromise as beneficial to the incumbents rather than an existential threat.
“Smart incumbents will compete,” he said. “Banks do not necessarily have to give up market share.”
He suggested that banks could eventually collateralize their reserves to issue their own stablecoins and generate a return consistent with the Clarity framework, opening the door to entirely new business models.
Stablecoin 2.0
This dynamic is at the heart of the STBL’s discourse.
The company describes itself as “stablecoin 2.0,” advocating a move away from the traditional centralized issuer model that now dominates the market.
Instead, STBL is building infrastructure that allows users to create stablecoins backed by real-world assets while retaining the economics generated by the underlying reserves.
“Users who bring value to the ecosystem should participate in the economy,” Vollono said.
The Company’s infrastructure is designed to support compliant yield management while allowing users, rather than centralized issuers, to capture the yield generated by reserve assets.
For Vollono, the Clarity Act could provide the regulatory framework needed to accelerate this transition. “I will tell you what the law clearly says: Money as a service has arrived,” he added.
Learn more: Crypto Clarity Bill Has 30% Chance of Passing This Year, Wintermute’s Hammond Says
