Sen. Cynthia Lummis says the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act must be finished by the end of 2026, with Republicans planning a Senate Banking Committee markup in late April after Easter.
Here’s the breakdown:
- The CLARITY Act aims to split oversight of digital assets: the CFTC will regulate digital commodities, and the SEC will oversee tokens classified as securities.
- It sets rules for crypto exchanges and issuers, and fills gaps left by the 2025 GENIUS Act on stablecoins.
- The main sticking point has been stablecoin yield. Early drafts barred paying passive interest on stablecoins to prevent them from competing with bank deposits, though activity-based rewards (staking, liquidity, payments) would be allowed. Coinbase had opposed the bill over this, but Lummis says compromises on yield and DeFi provisions are largely reached.
The House passed a version in 2025, but the Senate’s version is narrower and stricter on customer protection. The April markup sets a clear path toward resolving differences between chambers before Lummis’s year-end deadline.
In short: after months of delays, the CLARITY Act is moving forward, aiming to finally give the U.S. a comprehensive digital asset framework.
