Local opinion: Protecting rural banks and farmers from a costly loophole

As a lifelong farmer and the owner of M&M Family Orchard, I’ve seen how much rural communities depend on one another. and on the local institutions that keep us rooted. On our ranch, families come to learn, to play, and to reconnect with the land. These moments remind me that agriculture isn’t just about crops or livestock — it’s about community.

At M&M Orchard, we are dedicated to fostering community through education, agriculture and recreation. We offer educational farmers markets, hands-on workshops, and family-friendly activities. Our goal is to create a welcoming space where people can connect, learn, and enjoy life on the farm.

That same spirit of connection extends to our local banks and credit unions. These are the people who know our names, who understand that a farm loan isn’t just a number on a spreadsheet but the difference between planting this season or not. They provide the credit and stability that keep family farms, small businesses, and rural families going.

But a dangerous loophole in a federal bill that was signed into law last summer threatens to unravel that entire system, putting farms like mine and the rural livelihoods we sustain at risk.

This law, called the GENIUS Act, was created with good intentions: to establish guardrails around stablecoins, which are a type of cryptocurrency that’s pegged to the U.S. dollar, and prevent risky, unregulated products from pretending to be insured bank deposits. That’s an important goal, and I support it. But unfortunately, the law doesn’t apply evenly. While it prohibits permitted stablecoin issuers from offering interest or yield, it fails to impose the same rule on crypto trading platforms like PayPal and Coinbase.

That means these digital platforms can still offer customers “rewards” or returns on stablecoins held in their accounts. In practice, that creates a backdoor for high-risk, yield-bearing products that escape the very oversight the GENIUS Act was meant to provide.

For rural communities like mine, that loophole isn’t just a technicality. It’s a real threat. When customers are incentivized to move their savings from traditional bank accounts into yield-bearing stablecoins on digital platforms, local banks and credit unions lose critical deposits.

When banks lose deposits, they lose their ability to lend. That means fewer loans for family farms trying to buy equipment or manage seasonal costs. It means fewer opportunities for small businesses that want to expand. It means less capital flowing into our communities and fewer jobs for working families. One recent analysis showed that if deposits leave banks for stablecoins, there could be $110 billion less available for small business lending and $62 billion for farm lending. Farming depends on steady credit and reliable local banks. If community banks lose deposits, farmers like me could lose the financial support we need to keep operations running.

The GENIUS Act’s loophole effectively allows large tech-driven crypto firms to compete unfairly with rural banks without following the same rules or providing the same consumer protections, like FDIC insurance. It’s not a level playing field. And in small towns across America, that imbalance could mean shuttered farms, stalled growth, and declining main streets.

Congress still has a chance to fix this. I call on Senator Gallego and members of the Senate Banking Committee to include clear language that closes the loophole in upcoming market structure legislation, specifically language that prohibits crypto trading platforms from offering interest or rewards on stablecoin holdings in upcoming market structure legislation. This isn’t about politics or technology. It’s about fairness, accountability, and the future of rural America.