Overview
- Senate leaders removed the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act from immediate floor consideration in late July to prioritize 74 federal nominations and a Russia sanctions package, narrowing the window before the August recess.
- Negotiators remain deadlocked over an ethics provision that would bar covered federal officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets and would route enforcement to the Justice Department rather than state attorneys general.
- The bill, which passed the House in 2025 and cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May, would split oversight between the SEC and CFTC and set rules on stablecoins, DeFi, custody, tokenization and developer liability.
- Prediction markets and analysts have cut the bill’s 2026 passage odds into the mid‑30% range, and the SEC has publicly said it stands ready to draft its own crypto rules if Congress does not finish the job.
- If the Senate misses the pre‑recess window, meaningful action moves to September or 2027, prolonging regulatory uncertainty for firms and investors and increasing the chance that agencies or foreign rules will shape markets first.