Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) still has some concerns about the Clarity Act amid a final push to get the cryptocurrency regulation bill to a vote on the Senate floor before August recess.
"I'm open to being persuaded on this," he told reporters Wednesday. "I'm told that they're still working on the text."
"My farmers in particular, are very, very worried that this will cause massive flight from community banks, and we've got to have our community banks," he said, adding, "If you're a farmer, that's where you get a loan. You don't get a loan from Citibank."
The Missouri Republican's concerns are tied to a lengthy debate that played out earlier this year between the crypto and banking industries over a stablecoin provision in the bill.
Stablecoins, digital tokens tied to a stable asset like the U.S. dollar, are regulated under the GENIUS Act, which Congress passed last year.
But since its passage, the banking industry has argued the bill left open a loophole. Despite a ban on paying out interest or yield on stablecoins, crypto firms can still offer rewards to stablecoin holders through third parties.
The banks contend this could cause people to remove their deposits from banks and into stablecoins, reducing lending capacity, particularly for smaller, community banks.
The crypto industry, by constrast, argued that there was limited risk of deposit flight and that rewards allowed them to effectively compete in the payments sector.
After a monthslong stalemate, Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) reached a bipartisan compromise to add more restrictions on third-party stablecoin rewards.
However, the banks have argued it doesn't go far enough, and some senators are still worried.
"They need to do something to fix that," Hawley said Wednesday. "I'm told that there's various proposals. So I'm totally open to being persuaded on that."
"I just wanted to be clear that farmers' concerns — Ag [agriculture] is our number one industry — farmers' concerns in Missouri need to be addressed too," he continued."
