American Bankers Association (ABA) CEO Rob Nichols sent an emergency Sundayletterto every bank CEO in the country, urging “immediate engagement” against what he called a stablecoin yield loophole in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, days before a Senate Banking Committee markup scheduled for Thursday.

The letter, dated May 11 — Mother’s Day — and addressed to ABA member bank CEOs, asked bank leaders to contact their senators and mobilize their employees to do the same before the committee convenes for a scheduled May 14 executive session on the bill.

“I am reaching out to make every bank leader in this country aware of an urgent advocacy fight that requires your immediate engagement,” Nichols wrote, according to the letter.

He warned that, without further changes, “we believe the current proposal would unnecessarily incentivize the flight of bank deposits into payment stablecoins, putting both economic growth and financial stability at risk”.

The timing of the letter drew sharp public pushback from Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, who posted on X that the ABA’s alarm bells were misplaced.

“Maybe the CEO didn’t get the message from the people actually in the room at the WH in meeting after meeting,” Grewal wrote.

“We’ve already had ‘immediate engagement.’ You got ‘idle yield’ killed. I know because I was there — you weren’t. Take yes for an answer. Move on. Stop wasting the time of the Senate and the American people.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, fired back at the ABA in a social mediapost, saying“the banking cartel in full panic mode”and accusing it of deceiving lawmakers by characterizing stablecoin yield as a “loophole” - a term he said was an insult to the bipartisan work already done during the GENIUS Act debate.

As Micah Zimmerman reports for BitcoinMagazine.com,the ABA's emergency outreach came just hours afterthe Senate Banking Committee has set May 14 as the date for its long-delayed markup of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the most consequential piece of cryptocurrency legislation ever to reach this stage in Congress, as a last-minute lobbying blitz from major banks and a Democratic ethics standoff threaten to derail the bill before it clears committee.

The executive session isscheduledfor 10:30 a.m. at Room 538 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., where committee members will debate amendments and vote on whether to advance the legislation to the full Senate floor. Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) confirmed the date last week, and live video feed of the proceedings will be available to the public.

Source: ZeroHedge News