Labor unions oppose Senate crypto bill ahead of Thursday committee markup: report

Five labor organizations urged the U.S. Senate to oppose the pending crypto market structure bill, warning that the legislation would expose worker retirement accounts to cryptocurrency volatility.

The opposing groups include the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, CNBC Tuesday. 

According to CNBC, SEIU, AFT, NEA, and AFSCME wrote in a previously unreported May 9 letter that the bill “jeopardizes the stability of workers’ retirement plans, including public pensions,” while adding that it could introduce “significant volatility” into retirement savings accounts. The groups said workers, not crypto firms, would bear potential losses.

The AFL-CIO sent a separate email to Banking Committee members on May 9, the report said. The union wrote that "absent sufficient regulation, embedding cryptocurrencies ... and other digital assets into the real economy will have a destabilizing effect, while benefiting issuers and platforms at the expense of working people."

Stablecoin yield provision

Labor opposition is not the only pressure point facing the legislation ahead of Thursday’s Senate Banking Committee markup. The American Bankers Association expressed opposition to updated language regarding stablecoin holdings.

The revised text seeks to block firms from paying yield on payment stablecoins and has drawn renewed support from Coinbase and the broader crypto industry. However, ABA CEO Rob Nichols said in a May 10 letter to bank executives that the provision remains insufficient and would "unnecessarily incentivize the flight of bank deposits."

Meanwhile, Strategy’s Michael Saylor commented positively on the Clarity Act markup in a post on X, linking the legislation to broader digital asset market development.

“The Clarity Act markup would unlock the next wave of Digital Capital, Digital Credit, and Digital Equity in the U.S. and globally,” Saylor wrote, adding that it signals “institutional validation for BTC, a framework for STRC-powered digital yield markets, and broader adoption of MSTR.”

Saylor pointed to specific legislative language, writing that the bill “recognizes activity-based rewards tied to payment stablecoins and distributed ledger participation as critical to enabling innovation, competition, and consumer adoption,” which he described as the basis for “responsible digital yield markets.”