U.S. Senate Banking Committee Passes Clarity Act Crypto Bill with Support from Two Democratic Senators at the Last Minute
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee passed the Clarity Act (Digital Asset Market Clarity Act) by a vote of 15-9, gaining support from two Democratic senators in last-minute negotiations, achieving bipartisan advancement.
All 13 Republican committee members voted in favor, with Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks joining in support. The bill establishes a regulatory framework distinguishing between SEC and CFTC oversight for the crypto industry and will move to the full Senate for consideration.
This move is seen as a milestone in crypto regulation, having previously faced pressure from banking lobbying and Democratic opposition, and avoiding a stalemate through last-minute agreements.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Eleanor Terrett, as a crypto policy reporter, has previously reported on the details of the FIT21 and stablecoin bill progress, and this disclosure of the last-minute negotiations for the Clarity Act continues her tracking record of the closed-door process of crypto legislation on Capitol Hill. She has also reported on multiple revisions of the Lummis-Gillibrand stablecoin draft.
On the capital path, the crypto industry applied pressure through 8,000 letters from the ABA Banking Association and industry lobbying, focusing resources on the Tillis-Alsobrooks compromise terms, motivated by the need to lock in a clear distinction between "commodities vs securities" for digital assets, reducing uncertainty in SEC enforcement, while opening pathways for institutional entry and RWA tokenization.
Similar to the Senate games following the House's high vote of 294-134 in 2025, and the long regulatory vacuum after the 2018 crypto tax reform, the current Clarity Act is at a critical juncture in the U.S. transition from a "regulatory gray area" to "market structure clarification."
Essentially, this represents a regulatory change: traditional financial regulatory frameworks cannot cover the characteristics of decentralized assets. The Clarity Act clarifies CFTC's dominance over mature blockchain and DeFi protections, shifting pricing power from SEC enforcement discretion to a congressional legislative framework, thereby allowing the industry to transition from uncertain compliance costs to a predictable rules environment, accelerating the concentration of capital from traditional banks to crypto infrastructure.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
Last-minute agreements often determine the rules of the track for a decade.
Regulatory vacuums are a paradise for speculation, while clear frameworks are the ticket for institutional entry.
Bipartisan votes outweigh a thousand days of lobbying.