US Treasury pushes Congress on CLARITY Act

TLDR

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is publicly pressing the Senate to move quickly on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a comprehensive U.S. crypto market structure bill.

1. The CLARITY Act already passed the House in 2025 but is stuck in the Senate over disputes about stablecoin yields and related details.
2. The bill would define when tokens are securities, split roles between the SEC and CFTC, and set federal rules for exchanges, DeFi-facing platforms, and stablecoin issuers.
3. Treasury and regulators say they are ready to implement the framework quickly if Congress acts, so upcoming Senate calendar decisions are the key thing to watch.

Deep Dive

1. What Treasury Is Pushing For Now

Scott Bessent has called on the Senate Banking Committee to "hold a markup and send the CLARITY Act to President Trumps desk," framing it as urgent because Senate floor time is limited and midterms are approaching. Multiple reports note that the bill already passed the House 294134 in July 2025, but has sat in the Senate for over 260 days due to internal disputes, especially over stablecoin provisions. Treasury links the push to competitiveness, pointing out that the global digital asset market is roughly 2 to 3 trillion dollars and nearly one in six Americans holds digital assets, arguing that regulatory uncertainty is driving business to hubs like Abu Dhabi and Singapore.

2. What The CLARITY Act Would Actually Do

The CLARITY Act is a digital asset market structure bill that would:

1. Define when a digital asset is a security versus a commodity and allocate jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC.
2. Create federal registration and compliance paths for trading platforms, custodians, and brokers, including decentralized exchange touchpoints, plus anti fraud and anti money laundering standards.
3. Layer on a federal stablecoin framework that interacts with the earlier GENIUS Act, including hotly contested rules around whether stablecoin balances can earn yield.

Banks argue stablecoin yields could drain deposits, while the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that banning yields would boost bank lending only 0.02 percent but cost users about 800 million dollars in lost returns each year.

3. How Fast This Could Hit Crypto And What To Watch

Regulators say they are operationally ready. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has highlighted "Project Crypto," under which SEC and CFTC staff have already mapped out rulemaking and supervision processes so they can implement the CLARITY framework quickly once it is law. Combined Treasury and SEC statements signal that the main delay is now in Congress, not in agencies.

For crypto users and builders, the key near term watches are:

1. Whether the Senate Banking Committee actually schedules a markup in the coming weeks.
2. If a compromise emerges on stablecoin yields and DeFi anti illicit finance rules.
3. Market reaction if passage odds rise, especially for U.S. facing exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and token projects worried about being treated as securities.

Conclusion

The Treasurys push on the CLARITY Act is about turning a fragmented, enforcement driven U.S. crypto regime into a single statutory framework, with stablecoin yields and DeFi rules as the main sticking points. If the Senate moves and a compromise holds, the industry would gain clearer lines between securities and commodities and a federal path for platforms, but some business models, especially around yield and onshore DeFi, may need to change quickly once regulators switch from planning to execution.