Clarity Act clears U.S. Senate committee, on its way to a final test in Congress

The crypto industry's primary goal in Washington has taken a major step forward, with the passage of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act through a Senate committee process that's been held up for four months.

The Thursday vote of the Senate Banking Committee to advance the Clarity Act was, at the last moment, secured in a 15-9 bipartisan vote after a maneuver to admit further amendments Chairman Tim Scott had earlier rejected and winning some last-minute Democratic support as a result.

"This process has been one of the most informative and challenging processes I've been through as a United States senator," Scott said after advancing the bill, saying he's confident that the parties will keep working on it to iron out the remaining issues. "The number of hours that you all spent talking to each other and getting to know each other better is unbelievable."

The legislation now moves to a merger with a similar bill approved earlier in a partisan vote of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Then it can get an overhaul that sends a final version toward a vote of the whole Senate, followed by a final vote by the U.S. House of Representatives. Despite the progress on Thursday, there are a number of significant points to work out and a very limited amount of Senate time to finish the work.

Through much of the morning, the Senate markup hearing had been conducted with a rift between the parties. But a deal worked out behind the scenes (even as the members were arguing over amendments) allowed Republican Chairman Scott to shift some Democrats to his side. On those added amendments, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the committee's ranking Democrat, raised vigorous objections to the process to consider those changes ("the deal you like, it's not the deal I like"), but by then she represented a suddenly narrowed group of Democrats.

The extra amendments sought to add some investor protections, clarify activities banks could engage in and defined what made a decentralized finance (DeFi) project truly decentralized (as advocated by Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat who'd pushed for tougher DeFi protections). Warren argued that the changes amounted to insufficient half measures, but her opposition fell flat.

The amendments won wide bipartisan support, in contrast to earlier amendments generally split down party lines.

The bill's last-minute momentum marked a significant win for Clarity Act advocates and the crypto industry. Its chances to become law, though, still depend on further negotiations over preventing the abuse of crypto and DeFi technology in financial crimes and the establishment of a government-ethics provision meant to limit the involvement of government officials in the crypto industry.

"My vote today is a vote to keep working in good faith," said Senator Angela Alsobooks, one of the Democrats who had been at the center of bipartisan talks on the bill. "We still have so much work to do."

It's so far unclear what President Donald Trump, who is heavily involved in the crypto industry with his family, will stomach with regard to an ethics provision. White House adviser Patrick Witt told a Consensus Miami 2026 audience earlier this month that an effort targeting the president specifically won't be tolerated, describing a negotiating posture on rules that apply "across the board, from the president all the way down to the brand new intern on Capitol Hill."