White House officials held a closed-door stablecoin meeting with Coinbase, Ripple, a16z, the Blockchain Association, and the Crypto Council, with banking trade groups ABA, BPI, and ICBA representing the financial sector, MSB Intel reports. Draft legislative language would prohibit stablecoin issuers from offering yield on idle balances, with enforcement authority granted to the SEC, Treasury, and CFTC to impose penalties of up to $500,000 per day per violation, according to Eleanor Terrett. Discussions now center on whether activity-linked rewards would remain permissible under the proposed framework.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said he now sees a 90% likelihood the Crypto Clarity Act will pass by the end of April, citing renewed legislative momentum in Washington. He noted that years of regulatory uncertainty have burdened innovation in the sector, and said the current push reflects a broader pro-crypto stance associated with Donald Trump.

The SEC Division of Trading and Markets issued updated guidance clarifying that national securities exchanges and alternative trading systems may facilitate direct trading between a crypto asset security and a nonsecurity crypto asset, such as Bitcoin, without first converting to fiat, the Division said. On broker-dealer capital requirements under Rule 15c3-1, the Division said it would not oppose a broker-dealer treating its proprietary holdings in a payment stablecoin as readily marketable and applying a 2% haircut to the market value of its larger long or short proprietary stablecoin position when calculating net capital. The guidance also covers broker-dealer operations and crypto exchange-traded products: a broker-dealer that operates an alternative trading system may combine brokerage, custody, and clearing functions so long as each activity independently complies with federal securities laws, and the Division would not object to transactions in crypto ETP shares under circumstances similar to the SEC staff 2006 Regulation M no-action letter if the shares are listed on a national securities exchange and participants avoid conduct that would violate Regulation M outside a permitted distribution.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins is weighing an expedited approval path for certain tokenized securities before full regulatory frameworks take effect. CME Group announced it will begin offering around-the-clock cryptocurrency derivatives trading in May. Separately, the United Arab Emirates disclosed it has generated $453.6M in Bitcoin from partner mining operations, adding the holdings to its sovereign reserves.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse now sees a 90% chance the Clarity Act will pass by the end of April, Fox Business reports. He said momentum has accelerated after renewed engagement from lawmakers and the White House, citing recent Washington meetings that included leaders from crypto and traditional banking. The bill aims to clarify which digital assets fall under securities laws versus Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight, and has faced friction over stablecoin reward provisions and whether crypto platforms may offer yield-like incentives. The White House has reportedly set a March 1 target to push negotiations forward, and Polymarket bettors are giving the bill an 82% chance of passing by the end of the year.

The White House hosted a third in-person session on Thursday with crypto industry representatives and banking lobbyists to refine stablecoin provisions in a broader market-structure bill, posts by Ripple's chief legal officer and Coinbase's legal head show. A proposal under discussion would allow third parties such as exchanges to offer stablecoin rewards only when linked to transaction activity rather than idle balances, with participants citing progress but no agreement. Banks plan to reconvene to gauge support for the trade-off as the Senate path for the market-structure bill remains uncertain after a House-passed CLARITY Act variant.

The White House led stablecoin discussions today, shifting focus from yield on idle balances to incentive-based rewards for specific use cases, Eleanor Terrett reports. Separately, Société Générale, a $1 trillion banking giant, extended its euro-backed stablecoin EUR CoinVertible to the XRP Ledger.

At a Feb. 19 meeting on stablecoin yield, draft language would narrow rewards, with yield on idle balances "effectively off the table," sources told Eleanor Terett. The White House led the meeting, which was attended by Coinbase, Ripple and a16z, as well as banking representatives via associations.

A White House draft of the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act prohibits earning yield on idle stablecoin balances and grants the SEC, Treasury and CFTC authority to impose civil penalties of $500,000 per day per violation, BlockBeats reports citing crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett on Feb. 20. The third meeting on the Act—also known as the CLARITY Act—focused on stablecoin yields and drew fewer attendees than the prior week, with representatives from Coinbase, Ripple, a16z and industry groups present but no individual bank delegates; Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the White House Crypto Committee, led the session and presented the draft text. The document acknowledged banks' earlier submissions on yield prohibition and narrowed debate to whether crypto firms may offer rewards tied to specific stablecoin activities, while banking sources push to include a study on payment stablecoin growth and potential impacts on deposits. Sources said discussions could conclude by month-end, with negotiations continuing in coming days.