The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (H.R. 3633), the most comprehensive crypto market structure bill to advance through a U.S. congressional committee, sits on the Senate Legislative Calendar as Calendar No. 423, awaiting a floor vote that must occur before the August recess or risk dying in the...
"For years, the digital frontier was trapped in a regulatory gray zone. Developers, entrepreneurs and investors were left with uncertainty. They faced confusion and enforcement actions, when instead, the government should have been crafting clear rules of the road." — Sen. Tim Scott, Chairman, U.S. Senate Banking Committee
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (H.R. 3633), the most comprehensive crypto market structure bill to advance through a U.S. congressional committee, sits on the Senate Legislative Calendar as Calendar No. 423, awaiting a floor vote that must occur before the August recess or risk dying in the 119th Congress. Polymarket odds for 2026 passage have fallen from 74% to approximately 48% over the past month. Galaxy Research currently estimates passage at roughly 50-50.
The bill would split digital asset jurisdiction between the CFTC and SEC for the first time by statute, reclassify secondary-market token transactions as commodity trades rather than securities offerings, and create a "mature blockchain" certification pathway under which networks meeting a 20% decentralization threshold escape SEC registration requirements. The 309-page Senate Banking Committee text, released May 12, 2026, also includes a stablecoin yield ban on idle balances, a DeFi trading protocol framework, and strengthened illicit finance provisions.
The math is binary: the bill needs 60 Senate votes to survive cloture. Republicans hold 53 seats. Two Democrats — Sens. Ruben Gallego (AZ) and Angela Alsobrooks (MD) — voted yes in committee but conditioned floor support on unresolved ethics provisions. At least five additional Democratic votes are needed. The ethics amendment that would have barred government officials from crypto business activity was defeated 13–11 on party lines during markup. Democrats say the bill cannot pass without it. Republicans say it is procedurally out of order.
The CLARITY Act has completed the following steps:
| Date | Event | Status | |------|-------|--------| | July 17, 2025 | House passage (H.R. 3633) | Complete | | May 12, 2026 | Senate Banking Committee releases 309-page text | Complete | | May 14, 2026 | Senate Banking Committee advances bill (15–9 vote) | Complete | | June 1, 2026 | Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar (No. 423) | Complete | | July 17, 2026 | House Financial Services hearing scheduled (New York) | Pending | | TBD | Senate floor vote (cloture + passage) | Pending | | TBD | House-Senate reconciliation | Pending | | TBD | Presidential signature | Pending |
White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt publicly targeted July 4, 2026, as a signing date. Eleanor Terrett of Fox Business called the timeline "realistically impossible" on June 14, citing unresolved ethics language, House-Senate text reconciliation, and cloture math. Galaxy Research's Alex Thorn places the more probable signing window at the week of August 3, assuming the Senate votes before the recess. Stifel analyst Brian Gardner has warned that failure to pass before the August recess would "materially worsen" the bill's prospects ahead of November 2026 midterm elections.
No Senate floor vote date has been scheduled as of June 24, 2026.
The bill establishes the first statutory framework for classifying digital assets under U.S. federal law. Three categories are created:
Digital Commodities. Tokens whose value derives from blockchain utility — including Bitcoin and Ether — fall under exclusive CFTC jurisdiction for spot and cash market transactions. The CFTC gains authority to register and supervise digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers. This is a significant expansion: the agency has historically regulated only derivatives, not spot markets.
Investment Contract Assets. Tokens sold as part of fundraising — functionally equivalent to startup equity — remain under SEC jurisdiction. The bill preserves SEC authority over primary-market token sales but introduces a limited exemption: issuers can raise up to $75 million over 12 months without full Securities Act registration, provided they meet disclosure requirements.
Permitted Payment Stablecoins. Dollar-pegged tokens receive joint oversight from both the SEC and CFTC, building on the GENIUS Act framework enacted in July 2025.
The bill's most consequential mechanism is the "mature blockchain" certification. An issuer, affiliate, or decentralized governance system can self-certify that a blockchain network operates without meaningful dependence on a central entity, defined as no single party controlling more than 20% of the network. The SEC has 60 days to contest the certification; appeals go to federal court.
Once certified, secondary-market transactions in that blockchain's tokens are no longer treated as securities transactions — even if the tokens were originally distributed as investment contract assets. This reclassification could affect hundreds of tokens currently subject to SEC enforcement actions or registration demands.
The Senate filibuster requires 60 votes for cloture. The current count:
| Bloc | Estimated Votes | Notes | |------|----------------|-------| | Republicans (yes) | ~53 | Full caucus assumed; no public defections | | Democrats (committee yes) | 2 | Gallego (AZ), Alsobrooks (MD) — conditional | | Democrats needed | 5+ | Uncommitted | | Total needed | 60 | |
The two Democratic committee votes came with explicit conditions. Both senators stated their support did not guarantee a floor vote without progress on ethics provisions. According to reporting by The Defiant, the seven-plus Democratic vote gap "is now the entire story."
Senate Agriculture Committee Democrats have not formally signed off on the merged text. The Agriculture Committee holds jurisdiction over CFTC-related provisions. Negotiations reportedly include a requirement for CFTC commissioner nominations as a condition for floor support.
Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) has placed the probable floor vote window in the period before the August recess. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) told Fox Business on June 18 that he hopes for a vote before the July 4 recess, though most observers consider this timeline expired.
The single largest obstacle to floor passage is the defeated ethics amendment. During the May 14 markup, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced language that would bar the president, vice president, and members of Congress from owning or participating in cryptocurrency businesses while in office.
The amendment failed 13–11 on party lines. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) led opposition, arguing the provision was procedurally out of order and its underlying allegations unproven.
The provision was widely understood as targeting World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture linked to President Trump and his family, which has pursued a U.S. banking charter. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) framed her support as an effort to "prohibit political corruption in banking applications and presidential bank ownership."
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has stated publicly that the CLARITY Act will not receive enough Democratic votes on the floor without ethics language. A subsequent meeting on the provision, reported in mid-June, remained contentious.
This creates a structural deadlock: Republicans reject the ethics amendment as out of scope; Democrats withhold votes without it. Resolution requires either a narrower compromise amendment or sufficient side agreements to satisfy Democratic holdouts without triggering Republican defections.
Section 404 of the Senate text prohibits U.S.-regulated crypto firms from paying customers interest simply for holding stablecoins. The provision was the subject of months of industry negotiation. Coinbase initially withdrew support from the bill over an earlier, broader yield ban before returning after a compromise reached in May 2026.
The final text distinguishes between passive yield and activity-based rewards:
The definition of "covered parties" in Section 404 targets centralized digital asset service providers. Non-custodial smart contract protocols — Aave, Compound, and similar DeFi lending platforms — fall outside the definition, according to legal analyses by Arnold & Porter and Latham & Watkins. However, synthetic yield products such as Ethena's USDe and centralized yield aggregators face regulatory uncertainty under the current text.
The 309-page Senate version also introduces a DeFi trading protocol framework for the first time in U.S. legislation, along with an insolvency safe harbor for digital commodity transactions. Details of the DeFi framework provisions have not been fully analyzed in public legal commentary as of this report's date.
Digital-asset lobbying spending rose 66% to $40.6 million in 2025, according to OpenSecrets data. The Fairshake PAC, the industry's largest political spending vehicle, has accumulated a $193 million war chest built on contributions of approximately $75 million from Coinbase, $70 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and $48–50 million from Ripple.
Coinbase's relationship with the CLARITY Act has been uneven. The exchange pulled support in early 2026 over the stablecoin yield ban. After the May compromise permitting activity-based rewards, Coinbase, Circle, and major crypto trade groups publicly backed the revised text and urged the Senate Banking Committee to advance the bill.
Ripple has maintained consistent support throughout the legislative process. The bill's classification framework would directly affect Ripple's XRP token, which has been the subject of years-long SEC litigation. Under the CLARITY Act's mature blockchain provisions, XRP could potentially qualify for reclassification as a digital commodity in secondary markets.
Bitwise estimated in April 2026 that the CLARITY Act had an 80% chance of passage. That estimate has not been publicly updated since the ethics impasse hardened.
The CLARITY Act's passage or failure carries measurable consequences for several market segments:
Token reclassification. The mature blockchain certification pathway could exempt dozens of tokens from SEC securities treatment. According to a Congressional Research Service analysis, secondary market transactions in tokens from certified blockchains would no longer trigger securities registration requirements. This directly affects exchanges' listing decisions, custody arrangements, and compliance costs.
CFTC spot market authority. The bill would authorize the CFTC to oversee spot crypto trading for the first time. CFTC-regulated exchanges — including those already approved for crypto derivatives — would gain a pathway to list spot digital commodities. The CFTC's existing crypto sprint aims to have spot trading live on designated contract markets by year-end 2026.
Stablecoin market. The yield ban, combined with the GENIUS Act's existing reserve and licensing requirements, creates a two-tier stablecoin regime: centralized issuers face strict yield restrictions while DeFi protocols operate under lighter treatment. The $320 billion stablecoin market will need to adjust product structures accordingly.
Compliance costs. The bill creates new registration categories — digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers — each with separate CFTC licensing requirements. Firms currently operating in regulatory gray areas will face binary choices: register or exit. The California DFAL, which took effect July 1, 2026, and the GENIUS Act's federal rules (due July 18, 2026) compound the compliance burden.
If the bill fails, the status quo persists: regulation by enforcement, SEC-CFTC jurisdictional disputes, and continued legal uncertainty for token issuers and exchanges. Galaxy Research has noted that failure before the August recess would likely push comprehensive market structure legislation into 2027 at the earliest, past the midterm election cycle.
The CLARITY Act represents the most advanced attempt at comprehensive U.S. crypto market structure legislation. Its SEC-CFTC jurisdictional split, mature blockchain certification, and stablecoin yield framework would reshape the regulatory landscape for a market that currently operates under enforcement-action precedent rather than statute.
The bill's fate now reduces to a single variable: whether Senate leadership can assemble 60 votes before the August recess. The ethics provision is the binding constraint. Without a compromise, the seven-Democrat math does not work. Without the math, the bill stays on the calendar.
The House Financial Services Committee hearing scheduled for July 17 in New York suggests continued institutional interest. But hearings do not move vote counts. The next material data point will be whether Senate Majority Leader schedules a cloture vote — and whether the ethics language has been resolved before that happens.
If the CLARITY Act fails in 2026, the industry returns to a regulatory environment defined by SEC enforcement actions, CFTC jurisdictional claims, and state-by-state licensing — the same fragmented framework the bill was designed to replace.