View or download a PDF of the letter here.

Americans for Financial Reform and Demand Progress, joined by other consumer advocacy and public interest organizations, sent a letter to Congress today expressing opposition to H.R. 4766, the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act of 2023. Both groups fear the bill as posted creates a regulatory pathway that is too permissive for so-called stablecoins (which are rarely stable) and that would fail to adequately protect consumers and increase the potential risks stablecoins pose to financial markets and systems.

Most notably, AFR and Demand Progress fear the bill’s framework would make it easier for big tech companies like Twitter/X to become stablecoin issuers, raising host of concerns around how a tech firm’s creation and control of its own ‘private money’ could pose a host of threats with respect to online surveillance, privacy violations, monopoly power of big corporations and economic justice issues.