Kristin Smith urged the Senate to preserve developer protections in the CLARITY Act, arguing open-source builders should not be regulated as financial intermediaries. Solana Institute CEO Kristin Smith is urging the US Senate to pass the CLARITY crypto market structure bill with developer protections intact, arguing that open-source developers and blockchain infrastructure providers should not be regulated as financial intermediaries. In a thread on the X social media platform, Smith said the market structure legislation “has a real shot at passing the Senate,” making it critical for lawmakers to preserve protections for software developers. Read more
Crypto lobby groups representing hundreds of organizations urged Senate leaders in a letter to schedule a vote on a key crypto bill ahead of the midterms. More than 200 crypto companies and organizations have urged the US Senate to pass the CLARITY Act, amid concerns that continued stalling could see it miss an important legislative window. In a letter on Monday shared by crypto lobby group Stand With Crypto, the group called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “to bring the Clarity Act to the Senate floor without delay.” It said the Senate Banking Committee's vote last month to pass the bill took “months of serious, bipartisan work” and the Senate should “build on that momentum and give members the opportunity to advance durable market structure legislation.” Read more
Galaxy Digital says the Senate has a tight calendar ahead of the November elections, and the time needed to fix up and pass a key crypto bill is quickly fading. Crypto firm Galaxy Digital has lowered the odds of the Senate passing its crypto market structure bill before the end of the year, noting that the window for lawmakers to act on the bill is closing. “On May 22, we raised our estimate of the probability that the CLARITY Act becomes law in 2026 to 75%, up from the 55% we published the morning of May 14's Senate Banking markup, Galaxy’s head of research Alex Thorn said in a note on Friday. “We are now lowering that estimate to 60%.” Thorn said the bill must pass the Senate before a month-long August recess starting in late July, as “after that, the window effectively closes.” He added that major legislation has historically not moved in the lead-up to the midterm elections due to lawmakers campaigning. Read more
Scott Bessent said that the Treasury Department was “proceeding with all deliberate speed” on Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Senate lawmakers that his department is pushing to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile more than a year after it was called for in an executive order from President Donald Trump. Speaking at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget for Treasury on Wednesday, Bessent said that the department was “proceeding with all deliberate speed” on the president’s 2025 order to establish Bitcoin and digital asset reserves. Although the reserve has been filled with crypto seized by the government, Treasury officials had no additional acquisition plans as of March. “We are moving forward very quickly on that, and part of that is our digital assets initiative, the strategic Bitcoin reserve is something, this is new technology, thi...
Many Democratic lawmakers have said that they will not support any version of a crypto market structure bill without provisions on ethics to address potential conflicts of interest by elected officials. US Senate consideration of the Digital Asset Clarity (CLARITY) Act is likely to resume as members reconvene this week after an extended Memorial Day holiday. Many US lawmakers and crypto industry leaders are pushing for consideration of the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill introduced by Republicans and passed by the House of Representatives in July 2025. The bill, expected to give more authority to the federal commodities regulator over digital assets, passed two crucial committees before the one-week break. It has been debated in Congress amid pushback from industry and banking representatives over stablecoins, tokenized equities and other issues. Read more
The Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the CLARITY Act in May, but it must still pass both chambers of Congress before heading to the president's desk. The United States will lose its leadership position in crypto to other countries, including China, if US lawmakers fail to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY), a crypto market structure bill, according to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis. Passing a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework would “ensure” that other countries “do not write the rules of the next financial era,” Lummis said. She added in a separate X post: In May, the Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the CLARITY Act after the legislation had stalled for months, reviving crypto industry hopes that the bill might be codified into law in 2026. Read more
The future of a digital asset market structure bill in Congress is still uncertain amid concerns over ethics provisions, with the president, whose crypto ties are under scrutiny, weighing in on social media. US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he intended to codify a “future-proof digital asset market structure,” likely referring to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) under consideration in the US Senate. In a post to his Truth Social platform for the second time this week on policy claims potentially affecting the cryptocurrency industry, Trump said the law would prevent “crypto haters” in future administrations from rolling back regulations affecting digital assets. Source: Donald Trump Read more