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The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — the most ambitious US crypto market-structure bill ever to clear a chamber of Congress — passed the House 294–134 in July 2025 but now sits on the Senate legislative calendar with no scheduled vote, more than a year after its lower-chamber breakthrough. The bill would replace years of case-by-case SEC enforcement under Gary Gensler's tenure with a statutory framework dividing authority between the SEC and CFTC, classifying Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP as digital commodities and writing disclosure, custody, brokerage and listing rules for the rest of the market.
Why it matters
The CLARITY Act is not a stablecoin bill — the GENIUS Act already filled that slot when it became law in 2025 — but the two overlap on one politically explosive point: whether stablecoin issuers and third-party platforms can pay interest on idle balances. Banking lobbyists argued the practice would drain US deposits; the amended bill prohibits passive yield from issuers like Tether and Circle, while letting exchanges and DeFi protocols keep activity-based incentives. Democrats separately tried to bar federal officials from profiting off crypto ventures — widely read as a Trump-family conflict-of-interest amendment — and the Senate Banking Committee voted it down 15–9 in May 2026 alongside an amended bill that is now awaiting floor time.
Market impact
For TradFi, the bill is the missing legitimacy layer: a defined SEC-CFTC split would let banks, brokerages and asset managers underwrite digital-asset products without today's registration ambiguity, which is the structural reason Wall Street desks have stayed cautious on tokenisation. For crypto-native firms, the headline win is benchmarks for when a token loses its investment-contract designation — the threshold that has kept ICOs effectively closed to US investors since 2018. The read for now is procedural: the policy consensus is closer than at any point in the last cycle, but the stablecoin-yield carve-out and the unresolved ethics fight mean the path to the president's desk still runs through a floor vote that has not been scheduled.
Frequently asked questions
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What does the CLARITY Act actually do?
It writes a federal framework that splits digital-asset authority between the SEC and CFTC, classifies Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP as digital commodities, and sets disclosure, custody, brokerage and listing rules for trading platforms and intermediaries.
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Why is the bill stuck in the Senate?
Two fights have stalled floor time: a stablecoin yield ban on issuers like Tether and Circle, and a Democratic ethics amendment targeting federal officials' crypto profits that the Senate Banking Committee rejected 15–9 in May 2026.
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How is the CLARITY Act different from the GENIUS Act?
The GENIUS Act, signed in 2025, regulates payment stablecoins — reserves, issuance, consumer protection. The CLARITY Act is broader, covering the full market structure: digital commodities, exchanges, brokers, custodians and the SEC-CFTC division of authority.
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Will the CLARITY Act pass in 2026?
There is no guaranteed timeline. The amended bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May 2026 but no floor vote has been scheduled, and the House and Senate versions still need to be reconciled before the president can sign.
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How would the CLARITY Act affect crypto investors?
Investors would get clearer disclosures, defined regulator jurisdiction and a legal path for ICOs — currently blocked for US investors since 2018. Critics argue moving too much activity outside SEC oversight could weaken retail protections.
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