The Senate has days to bring the Clarity Act to a floor vote before midterm-season dynamics freeze the calendar, and a coalition of TradFi giants managing a combined $50T in assets has broken from years of silence to urge lawmakers to pass it. Fidelity's letter to the Senate calls clear market-structure rules essential to US leadership in digital assets, and Charles Schwab, running $1.3T in client assets, described the bill as a fundamental catalyst the industry cannot do without. The sheer weight of institutional endorsement marks a turning point: BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab, Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole and Banco Santander have all aligned behind legislation the same firms once watched from a distance.
Why it matters
The irony at the centre of the fight is that the biggest obstacle to passage is no longer a sceptical Wall Street, it's the crypto president himself. Travis Kling's six-point read is doing the rounds: Trump was elected as the pro-crypto candidate, pulled in roughly $1.4B in crypto profits last year through ventures critics characterise as grifts and bribes, and now refuses the meaningful ethics provisions Democrats demand in the bill. The legislation sits on the one-yard line in the Senate while the vote count stalls on a provision Trump won't swallow. Until that knot loosens, or the floor deadline forces a compromise, the bill stays parked.
Market impact
Representatives of the Solana Policy Institute and the DeFi Education Fund said on camera that an emergency deal in the next week still moves the bill, but failure sends the realistic window to the early 2030s. Even with the legislative cloud hanging over the sector, S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched an 18-coin benchmark built with Pantera Capital, deliberately excluding Bitcoin in favour of revenue-generating protocols, with Ether, BNB, Solana, Tron and Hyperliquid as the top constituents and a 35% cap on the largest weight. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan called ETH the firm's second-largest position and "their market to lose" on stablecoins and tokenization, citing SEC chair remarks that all markets will move to blockchain rails and BlackRock CEO commentary that every asset will be tokenised. Bitcoin long-term holder supply hit a new all-time high even as the bear-case four-year-cycle chart flags one more low before the next leg up.
Frequently asked questions
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What is the Clarity Act and why does it matter for crypto?
The Clarity Act is the US Senate's market-structure bill that would assign oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC. Passing it would give crypto firms, banks and TradFi desks a clear rulebook instead of the case-by-case enforcement stance that has defined US crypto policy since 2022.
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Why are Fidelity, BlackRock, Schwab and Goldman backing the bill now?
The same firms spent years watching the crypto sector from a distance and are now competing for market share through ETFs, custody and tokenization products. They publicly want predictable rules so they can scale those offerings without fearing retrospective enforcement.
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What's blocking the Clarity Act from passing?
Senate Democrats want stronger ethics provisions targeting President Trump's crypto ventures. Republicans and the White House are resisting language that would constrain those businesses. The standoff has the bill at the one-yard line with no floor vote scheduled.
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What happens if the Clarity Act fails this window?
Lobbyists from the Solana Policy Institute and DeFi Education Fund have said on the record that an emergency deal in the next week could still pass it, but if the floor vote slips, the next realistic chance is the early 2030s after the next election cycle reshapes Congress.
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What is S&P Dow Jones's new crypto index and why exclude Bitcoin?
S&P Dow Jones Indices launched an 18-coin benchmark built with Pantera Capital, weighting ETH, BNB, SOL, TRX and HYPE at the top with a 35% cap. Bitcoin is excluded because the methodology screens for revenue-generating protocols rather than pure store-of-value assets.
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