Robinhood CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev has thrown his weight behind the CLARITY Act, declaring that the crypto market structure bill now has “real momentum” and urging Congress to deliver a final push.
“There’s real momentum now to finally get CLARITY across the finish line,” Tenev wrote on X on Thursday. “One more small push and we establish the legislative foundation to ensure American dominance in digital finance.”
The statement is significant coming from Tenev, who has been one of the most vocal fintech CEOs on U.S. crypto regulation throughout 2026. In January, he publicly called out the regulatory gridlock blocking Robinhood from offering staking in four U.S. states — California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Wisconsin — and said the U.S. was falling behind Europe, where Robinhood already offers stock tokens.
In March, he pushed for stablecoin yield to be included in the bill, writing “we must unleash the yield, safely” as the stablecoin rewards debate threatened to derail the legislation entirely.
Poll Shows the Political Case Is Growing
Tenev’s endorsement landed hours after polling firm HarrisX published a national survey of 2,008 registered voters showing strong bipartisan support for the CLARITY Act. The headline numbers: 52% support vs. 11% opposed, with net support of +43% among Democrats, +48% among Republicans, and +32% among Independents.
Perhaps more consequential for legislators: the survey found a +20% net electoral benefit for lawmakers who vote yes, and 47% of voters said they would consider voting for a candidate outside their preferred party if that candidate supported the CLARITY Act and their own party did not. Among crypto owners, that number jumped to 72%.
The national security framing proved to be the strongest message. Fifty-six percent of voters said digital payment systems built and controlled outside the U.S. would weaken American national security — a finding that aligns directly with Tenev’s “American dominance in digital finance” framing.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong echoed the sentiment, calling the CLARITY Act “a bipartisan, winning issue.”
Senate Markup Expected Today
The political momentum now has a concrete legislative timeline behind it. At Consensus Miami 2026 on Wednesday, Coinbase VP of U.S. Policy Kara Calvert told attendees she expects the Senate Banking Committee to schedule a markup as early as next week. Journalist Eleanor Terrett separately reported that the committee plans to notice the markup for Today.
The markup would be the first formal committee action on the CLARITY Act since its January stall, when Coinbase withdrew support over concerns about stablecoin yield restrictions, DeFi provisions, and open-source developer protections. The stablecoin yield dispute — the single largest obstacle — was resolved on May 1 through a bipartisan compromise brokered by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD).
That deal bans passive yield equivalent to bank deposit interest but legally protects activity-based rewards tied to actual platform usage—a framework both Coinbase and Circle endorsed immediately.
The Window Is Narrow
Despite the momentum, the path is far from guaranteed. The bill needs 60 votes to clear the full Senate, meaning bipartisan support must hold through committee and onto the floor. Calvert acknowledged the challenge directly: “That means you need Democrats. You need a bipartisan bill, and we have all been working really hard to make sure that bipartisanship holds.”
The banking lobby has pushed back aggressively, with major trade groups calling the stablecoin yield compromise “insufficient” and arguing the activity-based rewards carve-out is too broad. Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn has estimated the odds of the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 at “roughly 50-50, and possibly lower.” Polymarket traders currently price it at approximately 47%, down from 82% in February.
Senator Cynthia Lummis has been the clearest on the stakes: if the CLARITY Act does not pass in the next two to three months, it may have to wait until 2030, as midterm election dynamics and other legislative priorities take over. Tether’s Head of Government Affairs Jesse Spiro warned at Consensus that the 2026 midterms could have a “seismic impact” on whether crypto’s recent policy gains in Washington survive.
For Tenev — whose platform generates significant revenue from crypto trading and has expansion plans tied directly to regulatory clarity — the urgency is both strategic and commercial.
Also Read: Democrats Threaten to Block CLARITY Act Without Strong Ethics Rules
