Senator Cynthia Lummis is encouraging traditional banks to stop fighting stablecoins and to embrace them as a business opportunity instead, speaking on behalf of the stalled crypto flagship market structure bill.
Faster payments, blockchain efficiency, and federal safeguards
Speaking to Fox Business, Lummis said, “I’d like to see the banks embrace this rather than resist it.” As stablecoins integrate into 21st-century financial institutions, she highlighted the benefits they bring to consumers with faster, cheaper and also safer mechanisms to do business.
Her comments come as Congress is stuck negotiating a major crypto market structure bill. Banks and credit unions have warned lawmakers that stablecoins offering rewards could pull money out of regular bank deposits, especially at small community banks that rely on deposits to fund local loans.
“Money can be transmitted on the blockchain more quickly than it can if you’re going through existing bank structures,” Lummis told Fox, while highlighting the safety mechanisms developed with the Fed.
With the federal crypto rules moving slowly, especially the stalled CLARITY Act, banks seem to sit around waiting for ideal legislation. She warned this could cause them to fall behind entirely.
Stablecoins really took off last year. Their total value jumped by about 50%, pushing the market cap past $300 billion, according to Bloomberg. The amount of money changing hands in stablecoin transactions skyrocketed 75%, hitting $33 trillion in 2025.
US Risks Falling Behind Offshore Markets
So what’s the big risk? The system fears that if the US fails to adapt quickly, it will have to reap the benefits under the dominance of offshore entities from MENA or Asia. But banks continue to argue that the stablecoin yields threaten their business models.
However, stablecoins are no longer viewed as fringe or even experimental, with many mainstream banks providing crypto benefits alongside the benefits of traditional finance. While traditional finance (TradFi) remains dragged down with the red tape, the on-chain economy is accelerating.
