Crypto industry urges passage of Clarity Act

TLDR

Over 100 major U.S. crypto companies and advocacy groups are publicly pressing the Senate to move forward on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.

1. The Clarity Act would create a federal market-structure framework for digital assets, clarifying SEC and CFTC roles, stablecoin rules, and protections for non-custodial developers.
2. Industry groups including Coinbase, Circle, Kraken, Ripple and leading VCs sent an April 23 letter urging a swift Senate markup, warning that delays push jobs and innovation offshore.
3. Passage is uncertain, with research putting odds around 50-50 and prediction markets lower; key signals are whether a Banking Committee markup is scheduled and how stablecoin rewards are treated.

Deep Dive

1. What The Clarity Act Would Change

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 is a comprehensive U.S. crypto market-structure bill that passed the House in July 2025 and now sits in the Senate Banking Committee.

It aims to define when a token is a security versus a commodity, split jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC, set registration and disclosure rules for trading venues, and create a federal baseline that replaces todays state-by-state patchwork.

The bill also includes a federal regime for payment stablecoins, oversight for tokenized securities, and explicit protections for developers of non-custodial and decentralized infrastructure, according to summaries from Treasury testimony and detailed policy coverage of the Act.

2. Why The Industry Is Pushing Hard Now

More than 100 firms and trade groups, including Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, Kraken, Andreessen Horowitz and others, signed an April 23 letter urging the Senate Banking Committee to notice and proceed towards a markup of the Clarity Act, as reported by CoinDesk and Bitcoin.com.

They argue that relying on regulation by enforcement has created years of uncertainty, and that only statute can give durable rules for token classification, exchange operations, and disclosure standards across all 50 states.

The letter highlights specific priorities: preserving transaction-based rewards tied to payment stablecoins, clearly defining SEC and CFTC oversight of tokenized assets, and safeguarding open-source and decentralized developers from being treated like custodial intermediaries.

3. Odds, Obstacles, And What To Watch

Analysts at Galaxy Digital estimate roughly a 50-50 chance the Clarity Act becomes law in 2026, citing a tightening Senate calendar and multiple procedural steps still ahead, as covered by Bitcoinists summary.

Prediction markets referenced in recent CoinsKid analysis show lower probabilities (around the 3040 percent range for passage this year), reflecting delays and political noise around stablecoin yield rules.

Key sticking points include whether exchanges can pay interest-like rewards for simply holding stablecoins, how far protections for non-custodial and DeFi software extend, and how to reconcile the Banking Committee text with a separate Agriculture Committee bill. Timing is critical, with several senators warning that missing an end-of-May markup window could shelve crypto legislation for years.

Confidence: moderate because the procedural path and disagreements are well-documented, but legislative timing is inherently uncertain.

Conclusion

The industrys push around the Clarity Act is less about short-term price and more about locking in a coherent U.S. rulebook for tokens, stablecoins, and exchanges.

If the Senate moves to markup and a compromise on stablecoin rewards and developer protections is reached, it could unlock clearer paths for institutional capital and product design in the U.S. If the window slips, the current patchwork and enforcement-driven environment are likely to persist, keeping regulatory advantage with jurisdictions that already have comprehensive crypto frameworks.