Clarity Act’s biggest result could be the creation of a whole new market for “yield-as-a-service”, according to Joe Vollono, Chief Commercial Officer at stablecoin infrastructure firm STBL.
At the center of the debate is Section 404 of the proposed legislation, which would prohibit Digital Asset Service Providers (DASPs) and their affiliates from offering returns solely as a function of holding a digital asset.
The provision could fundamentally reshape how crypto users earn returns, pushing the market away from passive “hold-to-earn” products and towards more active, compliant return generation strategies.
“What this effectively does is shift the industry from a hold-to-earn market to a use-to-earn market,” Vollono told CoinDesk in an interview. “You need compatible return strategies to generate rewards on what would otherwise be idle capital.”
The Clarity Act has already cleared the Senate Banking Committee and is now expected to move into the full Senate to be merged with the Senate Agriculture Committee version of the bill before House reconciliation, with an optimistic timeline pointing to a full vote as early as July. Supervisory authorities will then have approx. 12 months to implement the framework.
Vollono, who spent more than seven years at Morgan Stanley and served at SIFMA, working on industry advocacy and market structure issues, said the implications of the Clarity Act go far beyond the dividend products themselves. Regulatory clarity, he argued, could finally unlock large-scale institutional participation in crypto markets.
“Once these issues are resolved, it allows large-scale capital to enter the market,” he said. “That’s the real catalyst here.”
Passage of the Clarity Act is widely viewed as a potential turning point for crypto markets because it would establish the first comprehensive US regulatory framework for digital assets, ending years of uncertainty over whether and how tokens fall under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The legislation would create clearer rules for exchanges, brokers, stablecoin issuers and decentralized finance platforms, a step many analysts say is necessary before large institutional investors, banks and asset managers can commit capital at scale. Supporters argue that regulatory clarity can reduce legal risk, improve consumer protections and give traditional financial firms the compliance framework needed to build crypto products and services in the US rather than offshore.
The role of AI
The likely outcome, Vollono said, is the emergence of a middle tier of infrastructure providers focused on compliant yield generation. He said he expects many of these services to be powered by artificial intelligence, acting as an orchestration layer for regulated capital flows.
Among the potential beneficiaries are decentralized finance infrastructure (DeFi) providers, vault curators, security management platforms, automated financial services, loan markets and reward systems.
“All of this can be automated by AI in a regulated market,” he said.
The underlying technology stack already exists, Vollono said, pointing to smart contracts, oracles, DeFi rails and API-based infrastructure that could be adapted to fit within a regulated framework.
“This creates a whole new world,” he said.
Legislation
The debate surrounding the legislation has also exposed tensions between traditional banks and the crypto industry, particularly over stablecoins and deposit migration.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Vollono said. “The banks are worried about deposit flight, but I think the concern is largely overstated.”
He said the traditional fractional reserve banking model depends on banks maintaining large capital bases that can be loaned out to create credit and liquidity. If deposits migrate to tokenized dollars or return-bearing blockchain products, that model could come under pressure.
Still, Vollono said he sees the final compromise as beneficial to incumbents rather than existentially threatening.
“Smart incumbents are going to compete,” he said. “The banks do not necessarily have to give up market share.”
He proposed that banks could eventually pledge reserves to issue their own stablecoins and generate commensurate dividends under the Clarity framework, opening the door to entirely new business models.
Stablecoin 2.0
That dynamic is central to STBL’s own pitch.
The company describes itself as “stablecoin 2.0,” arguing for a shift away from the traditional centralized issuer model that dominates the market today.
Instead, STBL is building an infrastructure that allows users to mint stablecoins that are backed by real-world assets while preserving the economy generated by the underlying reserves.
“Users who provide value to the ecosystem should participate in the economy,” Vollono said.
The company’s infrastructure is designed to support compliant returns management while allowing users, rather than centralized issuers, to capture the returns generated by reserve assets.
For Vollono, the Clarity Act could provide the necessary legislative framework to accelerate this transition. “I will tell you what the law makes clear: Money-as-a-service has arrived,” he added.
Read more: Crypto Clarity bill has 30% chance of passing this year, says Wintermute’s Hammond
