The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 — the first comprehensive U.S. crypto market structure legislation to clear either chamber of Congress — returns to active consideration on April 13 as the Senate reconvenes from Easter recess. The bill passed the House 294-134 in July 2025 but has spe...
"There is one way to give developers and entrepreneurs the comfort to reshore: durable law. Congress acted decisively with GENIUS, and the Clarity Act is the necessary next step." — Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary, Wall Street Journal op-ed (April 9, 2026)
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 — the first comprehensive U.S. crypto market structure legislation to clear either chamber of Congress — returns to active consideration on April 13 as the Senate reconvenes from Easter recess. The bill passed the House 294-134 in July 2025 but has spent nine months stalled in the Senate Banking Committee over disputes on stablecoin yield, DeFi oversight, government ethics provisions, and a late-breaking proposal to bundle community bank deregulation into the package.
A compromise negotiated by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) resolved the most contentious provision — whether platforms can pay yield on stablecoin balances — by banning passive yield while permitting activity-based rewards. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong publicly endorsed the bill on April 9 after blocking it twice earlier in 2026, a reversal that removes the industry's most prominent source of resistance. Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) warned at the DC Blockchain Summit that "digital asset legislation will not pass for the foreseeable future" if the bill fails to reach the Senate floor by May.
At least three unresolved issues remain: DeFi regulatory carve-outs, ethics language targeting government officials' crypto holdings, and the proposed attachment of community bank deregulatory provisions. The crypto industry has deployed $193 million through the Fairshake PAC for the 2026 cycle. The banking lobby, led by the American Bankers Association, opposes provisions it says would allow non-bank stablecoin issuers to redirect up to $500 billion in deposits away from the traditional banking system, according to a Standard Chartered projection. The bill must clear committee, survive a 60-vote floor threshold, reconcile with the House version, and reach the President's desk — all within roughly 18 working weeks before the midterm election cycle freezes legislative activity.
The bill divides digital assets into three categories: digital commodities, investment contract assets, and permitted payment stablecoins. It assigns jurisdiction accordingly:
The bill also creates a pathway for tokens to migrate from SEC to CFTC jurisdiction as networks decentralize, establishes registration requirements for crypto exchanges and custodians, and codifies broker-dealer obligations for digital asset intermediaries.
The Senate Agriculture Committee cleared a companion bill — the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act — in February 2026, which would need to be reconciled with the CLARITY Act's CFTC provisions before a final vote.
| Date | Event | |------|-------| | July 2025 | House passes CLARITY Act 294-134 | | December 2025 | Senate Banking Committee defers action to 2026 | | January 14, 2026 | Coinbase withdraws support hours before scheduled Banking Committee markup; markup postponed | | January 28, 2026 | Fairshake PAC announces $193M war chest | | January 29, 2026 | Senate Agriculture Committee marks up companion bill | | February 14, 2026 | Banking Committee markup postponed again | | March 10, 2026 | Tillis-Alsobrooks compromise negotiations begin on stablecoin yield | | March 20, 2026 | Compromise reached: passive yield banned, activity-based rewards permitted | | March 25, 2026 | Coinbase rejects compromise language a second time | | April 6, 2026 | SEC Chair Paul Atkins unveils parallel "Reg Crypto" framework at Nashville summit | | April 9, 2026 | Treasury Secretary Bessent publishes WSJ op-ed; Armstrong reverses position | | April 13, 2026 | Senate returns from recess; markup window opens |
The bill has been the subject of two postponed markups and two Coinbase rejections in less than three months. According to FinTech Weekly, Senate Banking Committee staff described remaining friction as "political" rather than technical.
The central conflict through Q1 2026 was whether crypto platforms should be allowed to pay yield on stablecoin balances. The American Bankers Association and allied community bank groups argued that yield-bearing stablecoins constitute de facto uninsured deposits that would drain funds from the regulated banking system. Standard Chartered projected up to $500 billion in potential deposit shifts if platforms were allowed to offer unrestricted yield.
The Tillis-Alsobrooks compromise (March 20) adopted a split approach:
The White House Council of Economic Advisers released an analysis estimating that a full yield ban would cost consumers approximately $800 million in lost returns while delivering "negligible" deposit gains to banks — an estimate that, according to reporting by Crypto Times, contributed to Coinbase's decision to drop its opposition.
Senator Lummis's office described the yield language as "99% resolved" in late March. The remaining 1% involves technical definitions around what constitutes "activity-based" versus "passive" reward structures.
Coinbase's opposition was not abstract. The company generated $1.35 billion in stablecoin-related revenue in 2025, approximately 20% of its $6.88 billion total net revenue, according to its public filings. Q3 2025 stablecoin income alone was $355 million.
Armstrong's January 14 statement — "We'd rather have no bill than a bad bill" — effectively killed the first markup. His second rejection on March 25 delayed the compromise timeline by two additional weeks.
Three factors appear to have driven the April 9 reversal:
Armstrong posted on April 9: "We agree. Thank you @SecScottBessent for saying it. It's time to pass the Clarity Act."
The stablecoin yield compromise did not resolve all disputes. Four distinct factions remain in tension:
1. The Crypto Industry Led by Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz. Primary goal: regulatory clarity that permits DeFi experimentation and flexible stablecoin economics. Now aligned on the Tillis-Alsobrooks compromise after Armstrong's reversal.
2. The Banking Lobby The American Bankers Association and community bank groups want stablecoin issuers subject to bank-equivalent capital, liquidity, and consumer protection requirements. They secured the yield ban but are now pursuing community bank deregulation provisions as a rider — a proposal that would expand the bill's scope and complicate passage.
3. Senate Democrats Led by Senator Alsobrooks and others who demand ethics language barring senior government officials and their families from personally profiting from crypto holdings. The provision is aimed directly at the Trump family's holdings in World Liberty Financial (WLFI) and the TRUMP meme coin. Both Alsobrooks's office and the White House have acknowledged these provisions remain unresolved.
4. DeFi Oversight Hawks A bipartisan group expressing concern that the bill's DeFi provisions create insufficient guardrails against illicit finance. The current draft lacks specific compliance requirements for fully decentralized protocols, which critics argue creates a regulatory gap that could be exploited for money laundering.
The CLARITY Act's legislative trajectory cannot be separated from the campaign finance surrounding it. FinTech Weekly compiled FEC data showing direct contributions to Senate Banking Committee members from crypto industry executives during the 2025-2026 cycle totaling $265,500 across seven senators:
| Senator | Committee | Total Received | |---------|-----------|---------------| | Mark Warner (D-VA) | Banking | $137,900 | | Tim Scott (R-SC, Chair) | Banking | $62,900 | | Pete Ricketts (R-NE) | Banking | $26,000 | | Bernie Moreno (R-OH) | Banking | $20,400 | | Cory Booker (D-NJ) | Agriculture | $14,400 | | Dave McCormick (R-PA) | Banking | $2,900 | | Deb Fischer (R-NE) | Agriculture | $1,000 |
Major contributors included Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi, Coinbase President Emilie Choi, and multiple Blackstone executives.
The Fairshake PAC represents a separate and larger channel. Confirmed contributions for the 2025-2026 cycle total $149.4 million, according to FEC filings analyzed by FinTech Weekly:
For context, Fairshake's affiliate Defend American Jobs spent $40.1 million supporting Senator Moreno's 2024 campaign, which unseated incumbent Sherrod Brown — a crypto legislation opponent.
The bill must complete five sequential steps before reaching the President's desk:
Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) told reporters on April 10 that he expects the bill to clear committee and reach the full Senate before month's end. Senator Lummis described the April 13-20 window as the critical period for scheduling markup.
The legislative math is tight. The Senate has 18 working weeks before the October 5 midterm recess. After the Banking Committee clears the bill, floor time must be secured alongside other legislative priorities — defense authorization, appropriations, and the pending GENIUS Act implementation. Each week of delay compresses the window further.
If the bill does not reach the floor by May, according to multiple Senate staffers quoted in reporting by Decrypt and CoinDesk, the November 2026 midterm cycle effectively freezes major votes as legislators shift to campaign mode.
The CLARITY Act represents a structural test of whether the U.S. political system can produce durable digital asset regulation. The bill's economic stakes are quantifiable: a $318 billion stablecoin market awaiting federal oversight, projected deposit migration of up to $500 billion, and $1.35 billion in annual revenue for Coinbase alone tied to the yield provision's final language.
The political stakes are less tidy. The bill has become a vehicle for community bank deregulation, a proxy fight over presidential family crypto holdings, and a test of whether $193 million in PAC spending can purchase legislative outcomes. The April 13 return from recess opens the narrowest window yet.
Whether the bill clears committee in the next two weeks will determine not just the regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States, but the credibility of legislative promises made by both parties to the crypto industry during the 2024 election cycle.