The latest version of the Clarity Act crypto bill is in the spotlight mainly because of its stable coin rules. In practice, according to a report by 10x Research, this could hit decentralized finance (DeFi) and related tokens harder.
At the center of the proposal is the ban on offering a yield – or anything resembling it like rewards – on stable balances. This effectively ends the idea of stablecoins as on-chain savings products and redefines them as pure payment rails.
“This represents a clear recentralization of yield,” wrote Markus Thielen, founder of 10xResearch. In effect, the proposal reduces returns for banks, money market funds and regulated wrappers, leaving crypto-native platforms with less room to compete on returns.
This change could also affect DeFi, despite early hopes that it could benefit from it.
The logic was that if centralized platforms couldn’t deliver yield, users would move to the chain, Thielen said.
But this assumes that DeFi escapes the same rules. In practice, the Clarity framework is likely to extend to front-end interfaces and token models, particularly where fee generation or governance begins to resemble equity, he said.
This puts a large part of the sector at the center of attention. Decentralized exchanges like Uniswap (UNI), and dYdX (DYDX), as well as lending protocols like Aave And could face tighter constraints on how they operate and distribute value, the report says. The result could be lower volumes, reduced liquidity, and lower demand for tokens.
On the other hand, the proposed regulations are “structurally optimistic” for infrastructure players like Circle (CRCL) because they integrate stablecoins deeper into payment rails, Thielen said.
