Reason for the sharp decline of CRCL: Today, CRCL plummeted by over 22%, triggered by the latest provisions of the stablecoin regulation bill. On Monday, March 24th, cryptocurrency industry practitioners attended a closed door review meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington and saw for the first time the latest provisions regarding stablecoin returns in the revised version of the Senate's Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The content of this clause shocked the industry and directly triggered market panic. The latest draft of the Clarity Act, which was exposed on March 24th, has three core restrictions: It is prohibited to pay profits solely based on holding stablecoin balances - if a user puts USDC into their account, the platform cannot provide you with any interest earned on it. Any reward mechanism shall not be similar in form or effect to bank deposit interest. Only rewards generated based on actual user activities (such as transactions, transfers, etc.) are allowed. This clause is a compromise result of the long-term game between the cryptocurrency industry and the banking industry - bank owner Zhang Stablecoin cannot compete with bank deposits, and the pressure is extremely high. Why does this directly impact Circle (CRCL) Here we need to understand the evolution of a key mechanism: The GENIUS Act has explicitly prohibited stablecoin issuers (i.e. Circle itself) from directly paying profits to users. But there is a loophole: third-party exchanges such as Coinbase can still issue "rewards" in their own name to users holding USDC, essentially interest. The purpose of the new clause in the Clarity Act is to plug the loophole of this "third-party model", and even exchanges cannot provide users with stablecoin returns. The blow to Circle is twofold: The specific consequences at the impact level include a decrease in demand for USDC, no returns for users holding USDC, a significant decrease in attractiveness, and a possible shrinkage in USDC circulation, as well as a break in partner income. Coinbase's revenue from stablecoin rewards is expected to reach $355 million in Q3 2025. If banned, the value of its partnership with Circle will significantly decrease. The business model of Circle is under pressure, relying on the USDC reserve scale to eat the spread of US Treasury bonds, and the shrinking scale directly reduces revenue. Bank industry promoter More than 3200 bankers have jointly written a letter to the Senate requesting an extension of the income ban from "issuer only" to "all third-party intermediaries". The Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, French Hill, also made it clear that "stablecoins are payment tools and should not be used to pay for profits. This banking lobbying was ultimately written into the Clarity Act draft.