US CLARITY Act gains momentum in Congress

TLDR

The US CLARITY Act, a major crypto market-structure bill, has cleared key committees and reached the Senate calendar, but still faces political hurdles before it can become law.

1. The bill has bipartisan momentum after House passage and a 15 to 9 Senate committee vote, yet it still needs 60 Senate votes and reconciliation between House and Senate versions.
2. CLARITY would formally split crypto oversight between the SEC and CFTC, tighten AML rules, fund enforcement, and codify protections for exchange customers and some developers.
3. The main sticking points are ethics rules, DeFi and AML treatment, and banking opposition, so the next few weeks of Senate negotiations and any scheduled floor vote are critical signals.

Deep Dive

1. Current Status And Momentum

The House passed a version of the CLARITY Act in July 2025 by a bipartisan 294 to 134 vote.

In May 2026 the Senate Banking Committee advanced its own 182 page version 15 to 9, and the bill is now on the formal Senate calendar, eligible for a floor vote once leadership agrees to schedule it. That committee vote included two Democrats joining all Republicans in favor, signaling cross party support even if their final votes are conditional on changes to the text.

Analysts estimate roughly a coin flip to modestly higher odds that CLARITY becomes law in 2026, but it still must clear a 60 vote filibuster threshold, be reconciled with the House version, and then be signed by the President before the legislative window tightens around midterm campaigning.

2. What CLARITY Would Actually Do

Substantively, CLARITY is a market structure bill for digital assets. It would give the CFTC clear jurisdiction over spot trading in digital commodities like Bitcoin and Ethereum, while the SEC would regulate digital asset securities and new token offerings.

The bill creates a pathway for some tokens to transition from securities to commodities as their networks become sufficiently decentralized, and it sets registration, disclosure, and capital segregation rules for exchanges, brokers, and custodians to avoid FTX style commingling of customer funds.

On the compliance side, it folds many crypto intermediaries into Bank Secrecy Act and AML obligations, adds a safe harbor to pause suspicious transfers, and proposes allocating around 150 million dollars to law enforcement for blockchain analytics and crypto fraud investigations.

3. Risks, Disputes, And What To Watch

Momentum is real, but passage is not assured. The Senate still lacks firm commitments for the 60 votes needed, and negotiations are stuck on three fronts.

First, Democrats want stricter ethics and recusal rules for officials with significant crypto exposure, while Republicans resist broader ethics language. Second, DeFi treatment and AML expectations for decentralized protocols and self custody remain contentious. Third, parts of the banking sector oppose stablecoin and yield provisions, arguing they undercut traditional deposit protection.

Scenario analysis from policy watchers puts passage before the late summer recess and delay into 2027 in a similar probability range, with outright failure until the next Congress as a smaller, but real, tail risk. For crypto users, the main signals to monitor are any announced Senate floor date, public compromise language on ethics or DeFi, and how markets react in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and large cap altcoins around those policy headlines.

Conclusion

The CLARITY Act is closer to becoming US law than any prior comprehensive crypto bill, but it is still in the high risk, high impact phase where a single political deal, or stall, can change the outlook. If it passes, the biggest shift will be from regulatory ambiguity to a clear SEC and CFTC split, which could lower structural uncertainty for institutions and reshape how exchanges, stablecoins, and DeFi operate in the United States.