The Senate crypto bill, formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, would build the first comprehensive federal rulebook for cryptocurrencies by dividing oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The House passed it 294–134 on July 17, 2025, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced it 15–9 on May 14, 2026, with two Democrats joining all Republicans.1CNBC. Clarity Act Congress Crypto Senate It now needs 60 votes on the Senate floor, and several disputes are still open.
What the Bill Does
The Clarity Act sorts digital assets into two buckets and assigns each to a regulator. Tokens that qualify as “digital commodities” — assets whose value comes from the use of a blockchain rather than from a company’s managerial efforts — fall under the CFTC. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the clearest examples.2House Financial Services Committee. Section-by-Section Summary of the Clarity Act Tokens sold as investment contracts, where buyers expect returns from a venture, stay securities under the SEC.
Getting into the commodity bucket runs through a filing. An issuer files a notice with the SEC arguing that the underlying blockchain is mature and sufficiently decentralized. If the SEC does not object within 60 days, the asset shifts to CFTC oversight; if the SEC denies the filing, the issuer can appeal to the D.C. Circuit within 60 days.3Akin Gump. Crypto Clarity: The Politics, Policy, and Implications of Digital Assets Regulatory Framework Legislation
On the CFTC side, the bill creates three new registration categories: digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers, each with capital, risk management, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements.2House Financial Services Committee. Section-by-Section Summary of the Clarity Act The SEC keeps jurisdiction over tokens still being sold as securities and retains anti-fraud authority over commodity transactions that occur on SEC-registered platforms. A joint SEC-CFTC advisory committee is required, and the two agencies must jointly write rules for mixed transactions and portfolio margining.4Senate Banking Committee. The Facts: The Clarity Act Protects Main Street
The Senate Banking Committee has also floated its own discussion draft, the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which uses the term “ancillary asset” and gives the SEC more affirmative authority over classification through a proposed “Regulation DA.”5Senate Banking Committee. Responsible Financial Innovation Act Discussion Draft Both approaches try to end case-by-case enforcement; the Senate version preserves more SEC discretion.
The Stablecoin Yield Fight
Stablecoins — tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar — are the subject of one of the bill’s hardest fights. The GENIUS Act, signed into law on July 18, 2025, set reserve requirements for stablecoin issuers and excluded yield-bearing tokens from the “payment stablecoin” category, but left open what exchanges and affiliates could offer.6White House. Fact Sheet: President Trump Signs GENIUS Act Into Law
The Clarity Act closes that opening. It bars rewards paid “solely in connection with the holdings of payment stablecoins” and anything “economically or functionally equivalent to the payment of interest or yield on an interest-bearing bank deposit.” Rewards tied to “bona fide platform activity,” like actual transactions, are allowed.7Investor’s Business Daily. Clarity Act Text Senate Banking Committee Markup Hearing
The language came out of a March 20, 2026, deal between Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), negotiated with the White House. Alsobrooks described the goal as blocking yield “on a passive balance” while preventing deposit flight from banks.8Senator Alsobrooks. Senators, White House Strike Agreement in Principle to Resolve Bank-Crypto Clash The American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, and Consumer Bankers Association argued in a joint letter that the activity carveout is loosely defined and “opens the door for yield-like rewards programs,” citing research that yield-earning stablecoins could reduce consumer, small-business, and farm lending by a fifth or more.9ABA Banking Journal. Report: Senators Reach Deal on Stablecoin Yield
The Developer Protection Fight
Section 604 of the bill, drawn from the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, says that software developers who do not take custody of user funds are not “money transmitters” under federal law and are therefore not covered by Bank Secrecy Act anti-money-laundering rules.10Unchained Crypto. White House to Meet Law Enforcement Groups in Bid to Save Clarity Act’s DeFi Protections The crypto industry has treated this as a “red line,” and a political action committee called Defend Developers launched in early June 2026 to back lawmakers who support the provision.11The Block. Crypto Industry Launches PAC for Software Developer Safeguards
Law enforcement groups pushed back hard. In a joint letter on June 23, 2026, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the National District Attorneys’ Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys argued that Section 604 creates “anti-money laundering loopholes” that could shield operators of mixers, tumblers, and decentralized finance platforms from prosecution.12Global Legal Insights. US Law Enforcement Warns Clarity Act Could Weaken Crypto Crime Enforcement White House crypto policy adviser Patrick Witt has been leading outreach to those groups to find compromise language.10Unchained Crypto. White House to Meet Law Enforcement Groups in Bid to Save Clarity Act’s DeFi Protections
Who Voted How in Committee
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) ran the May 14 markup, framing the bill as needed to “protect consumers, support innovation, and keep the future of finance in America.”13Senate Banking Committee. Industry Leaders Praise Chairman Scott on Advancing Bipartisan Clarity Act All 13 Republicans voted yes. Two Democrats joined them: Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland. Three other Democrats — Mark Warner, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Raphael Warnock — supported some amendments but voted no on final passage.14The Hill. Senate Crypto Regulation Bill
That math sets the floor challenge. Sixty votes are needed to break a filibuster, which means at least eight Democrats have to sign on, and some of them will have to come from senators who voted no in committee.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat, led the opposition. She called it a “pro-industry crypto bill” that would “wipe out a huge number of state-level protections against fraud,” repeat pre-2008 deregulation mistakes by letting banks hold risky digital assets, and fail to address cryptocurrency use by Iran and drug cartels.15Senate Banking Committee. Senator Warren Opening Remarks at Committee Markup of the Clarity Act She filed 44 amendments, most of which were rejected, and criticized the chairman for ruling more than a dozen out on procedural grounds — including a National Sheriffs’ Association–backed amendment on cartel money laundering and one requested by community banks on deposit flight.16Yahoo Finance. Clarity Act Fast Track Hinges on Senate Votes
Ethics Amendments
Several Democrats pushed to add conflict-of-interest provisions. Senator Chris Van Hollen filed eight amendments before markup, with the headline proposal prohibiting the President, Vice President, members of Congress, senior officials, and their families from owning, promoting, or affiliating with digital asset issuers or platforms. His other amendments addressed insider trading, self-dealing, information parity between insiders and retail investors, and DeFi-related sanctions evasion.17Senator Van Hollen. Van Hollen Proposes Amendments to Clarity Act to Ensure Transparency
Warren cited what she described as $1.4 billion in crypto-related gains by President Trump and his family as reason for stronger guardrails.15Senate Banking Committee. Senator Warren Opening Remarks at Committee Markup of the Clarity Act Whether any ethics language survives into the final bill may shape how many Democrats it can pick up on the floor.
Where Consumer Groups and the Industry Stand
Consumer Reports argued that shifting most digital assets from the SEC to the CFTC strips away stronger disclosure requirements, examination powers, and consumer protection mandates, and objected to the bill’s preemption of state consumer protection laws — including privacy, contract rights, and unfair practice remedies — for federally registered firms.18Consumer Reports Advocacy. House Approves Clarity Act Without Needed Protections for Consumers and Investors The National Consumer Law Center led a coalition of 82 organizations opposing the bill in a July 2025 letter, saying it “legitimizes risky and exploitative crypto industry practices.”19NCLC. Letter Opposing Clarity Act Americans for Financial Reform contended the bill would let issuers sell exempt crypto securities to retail investors up to $75 million without traditional disclosure requirements.20Americans for Financial Reform. Fact Sheet: Clarity Act Worse Than Last Year’s FIT 21 Crypto Deregulation
More than 200 crypto firms, including Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Binance, have lobbied for a Senate floor vote. Industry groups such as Stand With Crypto, the Blockchain Association, and the Crypto Council for Innovation have publicly urged passage, calling the bill essential to keeping the U.S. competitive.21Yahoo Finance. Zcash, Coinbase, Circle, Galaxy Back Clarity Act Push
What Happens Next
As of late June 2026, four issues remained unresolved: the Section 604 developer protection language, whether the stablecoin yield compromise sticks, filling out the CFTC’s commissioner ranks, and whether any ethics provisions make it into the final text.10Unchained Crypto. White House to Meet Law Enforcement Groups in Bid to Save Clarity Act’s DeFi Protections
Supporters had roughly four weeks of Senate floor time before the August recess, and Galaxy Research put the odds of the bill becoming law in 2026 at about 60%.22Yahoo Finance. SEC Promises Crypto Clarity If it doesn’t pass before the November midterms, backers worry the window could close for years, with a new Congress potentially less friendly to the industry.23Galaxy Digital. Clarity Act Update: Final Push SEC Chair Paul Atkins has himself said that only Congress can “future-proof” crypto regulation, since a future chair could undo any administrative framework.