- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong confirmed that the CLARITY Act is ready for a full U.S. Senate floor vote following extensive bipartisan negotiations.
- The revised market structure legislation incorporates key compromises on stablecoin rewards, non-custodial developer protections, and regulatory oversight split between the SEC and CFTC.
- Key amendments include strict ethics rules prohibiting federal officials, including the U.S. President, from issuing or sponsoring digital assets for profit.
Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong announced that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) is finalized and prepared for a full floor vote in the U.S. Senate, signaling a potential breakthrough for digital asset market structure regulation in the United States.
Speaking in a public video update, Armstrong emphasized that the proposed legislation represents a bipartisan compromise achieved after thousands of hours of negotiation between lawmakers, banking executives, and crypto industry advocates. According to Armstrong, the bill establishes a clear federal regulatory framework designed to foster domestic innovation while providing essential consumer protections and tools for federal law enforcement.
“We, with fingers crossed, think in the next few weeks we have a good chance of getting this bill to the full Senate floor,” Armstrong stated, describing the current draft as a balanced outcome where both the traditional banking sector and digital asset firms made significant concessions.
Legislative momentum picked up momentum after Senator Cynthia Lummis released an updated draft of the bill incorporating new ethics provisions sought by Senate Democrats. The amended text explicitly bans all federal officials, including the President, from issuing or sponsoring digital assets for personal financial gain, addressing key regulatory and political hurdles that previously threatened to stall the bill before the congressional recess.
A core element of the legislative compromise focuses on stablecoin reward models, which had drawn pushback from commercial banking lobbies. Under the updated agreement, passive yields paid to users merely for holding idle stablecoin balances are banned, whereas rewards linked to active transactions, network usage, or payments remain allowed. Furthermore, the framework formalizes regulatory division by allocating oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), while granting statutory clarity to non-custodial software developers.
Following its 15-9 approval by the Senate Banking Committee, the CLARITY Act now awaits scheduling for a final Senate vote, representing the most advanced effort by U.S. lawmakers to establish comprehensive market rules for digital assets.
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