CLARITY Act Faces Make-or-Break Senate Markup — US Crypto Law Now or 2030

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is approaching its last realistic opportunity to become law in 2026 — and the people responsible for enforcing it are not being subtle about the urgency. CFTC Chair Brian Selig last week sent a direct message to Congress: send the CLARITY Act to the President, or accept that meaningful crypto market structure regulation will not arrive until 2030 at the earliest.

The Senate Banking Committee is planning a markup session in late April — a procedural step where the bill is formally amended and voted out of committee. If the markup goes smoothly, the path to a Senate floor vote opens. If it stalls again, Senator Cynthia Lummis has warned that the legislative window closes entirely.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.

Where the Bill Stands

The CLARITY Act passed the House of Representatives in July 2025 by a bipartisan vote of 294 to 134 — a comfortable margin that reflected genuine cross-aisle consensus. It has since sat in the Senate for nearly nine months, stalled by a combination of scheduling conflicts, jurisdictional disputes, and a persistent disagreement over whether payment stablecoins should be allowed to offer yield to holders.

The stablecoin yield question created a four-way deadlock between the Senate Banking Committee, Senate Agriculture Committee (which oversees the CFTC), the House, and the White House. A compromise was reportedly reached on April 14 through the Presidential Advisory Committee on Digital Assets — removing what had been the primary procedural obstacle and clearing the way for the markup session.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has framed the urgency in terms that go beyond financial markets. In an April 9 statement, Bessent described the CLARITY Act as "a national security priority," warning that without a clear U.S. framework, digital asset markets — and their accompanying infrastructure — will continue migrating to jurisdictions outside American oversight.

What the Bill Would Do

At its core, the CLARITY Act draws a regulatory boundary between two types of digital assets that U.S. law has historically struggled to distinguish clearly:

Digital commodities — decentralised tokens like Bitcoin that are not issued by a central counterparty. These would fall under CFTC exclusive jurisdiction for spot market oversight.
Investment contract assets — tokens that represent stakes in projects with ongoing issuers and development teams. These would remain under SEC jurisdiction.

The division matters enormously for the industry. Much of the regulatory uncertainty that has kept institutional capital cautious involves tokens that regulators disagree about — some SEC officials argue most tokens are securities, while industry argues most are commodities. The CLARITY Act would mandate a classification process that produces definitive answers.

The bill also addresses DeFi disclosure requirements, stablecoin reserve standards, and cross-border recognition for digital asset businesses operating in CFTC-approved foreign markets.

The Stakes of Delay

The consequences of another missed window are significant. The current 119th Congress expires in January 2027. If the CLARITY Act does not clear the Senate before the midterm recess schedule compresses the legislative calendar, the bill dies and would need to be reintroduced in the 120th Congress — resetting the process from committee hearings.

Senator Lummis put it plainly: "Vote now, or wait until 2030." Her timeline reflects a realistic read of how long the legislative restart would take — two to three years of hearings, markups, and floor scheduling.

For markets, the delay cost is measured in foregone institutional flows. A November 2025 Nomura and Laser Digital survey found that regulatory clarity is the primary barrier cited by institutional investors who have not yet allocated to digital assets. Passing the CLARITY Act would, according to estimates from Grayscale's policy team, unlock a category of pension fund and insurance capital that currently cannot enter the market due to compliance restrictions.

Industry and Regulator Alignment — A Rarity

What makes the current moment unusual is the breadth of support from institutions that historically disagree. The SEC under Chair Paul Atkins has signalled it will not resist CFTC jurisdiction over genuine digital commodities — a break from the previous administration's posture of asserting broad securities authority over essentially all tokens.

The CFTC, under Chair Selig, actively wants the bill passed. The White House is pushing. The House has already voted. Senator Lummis and Senator Gillibrand remain the bill's Senate champions. Even industry participants who rarely agree on anything — Coinbase, Ripple, the DeFi Education Fund, and the Chamber of Digital Commerce — have filed unified letters urging Senate action.

The Kelp DAO exploit that landed over the weekend may add one more voice to the chorus: DeFi security incidents on this scale tend to prompt legislative urgency, and the CLARITY Act's DeFi disclosure provisions have been cited as a potential mechanism for requiring the kind of security audits that might have caught Kelp's bridge vulnerability.

What to Watch

Late April Senate markup: This is the critical event. A clean markup that advances the bill to the floor means a 2026 signature is possible. A failed or postponed markup almost certainly ends the 2026 window.
Floor scheduling: Even after markup, Senate Majority Leader McConnell would need to schedule floor time — not guaranteed in a busy spring calendar.
DeFi provisions: Expect the Kelp DAO exploit to influence how aggressively senators push for DeFi-specific requirements during the markup process.
Stablecoin bill coordination: A separate stablecoin reserve bill is also moving through the Senate; whether these two bills are combined or travel separately will affect the timeline for both.