Status: The markup session is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET today. Members will debate more than 100 filed amendments before voting on whether to advance the bill. This article will be updated once the result is confirmed.
Summary
The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to hold its markup of the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act today, the second formal Senate action on on crypto market structure legislation in 2026 — following the Senate Agriculture Committee's January 29 passage of the companion Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act (DCIA, S.3755) on a 12-11 party-line vote. The vote has not happened yet. Even if it passes, a full Senate vote, House reconciliation, a presidential signature, and many months of agency rulemaking still stand between the committee room and rules crypto firms must actually follow.
01 What Today’s Vote Actually Is
Today’s scheduled session in Room 538 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building is a committee markup, not a final passage vote. The executive session opens at 10:30 a.m. ET, with committee members debating more than 100 filed amendments before voting on whether to advance the legislation to the full Senate floor. The bill text itself runs 309 pages and was released by Chairman Tim Scott’s office just after midnight on Tuesday, May 12, two days before the markup, as a substitute amendment to H.R.3633.
A markup is the stage where a committee gives a bill its final shape before sending it up the chain. Members propose substitute amendments, the committee votes on each, and ultimately decides whether to send the bill forward. The Senate Banking Committee splits 13 Republicans to 11 Democrats, and Republican leadership has signaled it has the votes to advance the bill along party lines if needed. But nothing is final until the gavel comes down.
The critical Republican pivot is Senator John Kennedy (R-LA). Chairman Tim Scott has said he wants all 13 of 13 Republicans on board, what he calls “the red zone” threshold, and Kennedy’s commitment has been the open question. Per Punchbowl News, Kennedy’s hesitation is reportedly not about crypto policy specifically. How Kennedy votes is the single most important pre-gavel signal of where Thursday lands
Important context:
Even if the committee advances the bill today, the CLARITY Act does not become law. The bill must still clear a full Senate floor vote, be reconciled with the Senate Agriculture Committee's DCIA, be reconciled with the House version passed in July 2025, and be signed by the President before it has any legal force.
02 Why the CLARITY Act Matters
The CLARITY Act is the most comprehensive crypto market structure bill ever to reach this stage in Congress. It passed the House on July 17, 2025, by a 294 to 134 bipartisan vote, with all 216 Republicans in support and 78 Democrats crossing the aisle. Since then it has been stuck in the Senate.
The core problem the bill tries to fix is jurisdictional confusion. For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have each claimed authority over different parts of the crypto industry without a clean statutory line dividing them. The result has been a long stretch of regulation by enforcement, with companies guessing at the rules and waiting for lawsuits to clarify them.
If the bill draws the line in statute, it would establish which digital assets are commodities, which are securities, and what protections developers, custodians, and self-custodians can actually rely on.
Policy Analyst View
The path to today’s markup was not linear. The Banking Committee was originally scheduled to mark up CLARITY on January 15, 2026, but Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pulled the company’s support on January 14, citing concerns over stablecoin yield, and Chairman Scott postponed the markup indefinitely. The bill sat in limbo for nearly four months.
The stablecoin piece has been the biggest sticking point. The breakthrough came on May 1 when Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks reached a bipartisan compromise. The deal bans passive yield on stablecoins, meaning simply holding USDC or USDT will not generate interest-like returns. Activity-based rewards tied to actual transactions, trading volume, or platform use remain permitted. Armstrong reversed course publicly on the same day with a three-word X post: “Mark it up.” That alignment of the administration, SEC Chair Paul Atkins, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Coinbase finally gave Chairman Scott the political cover to schedule today’s session.
The banking lobby has pushed back hard, with the American Bankers Association reportedly sending more than 8,000 letters to Senate offices criticizing the yield compromise in the days before today’s vote.
03 The Step by Step Timeline If Today’s Vote Passes
If the committee advances the bill, here is what still has to happen before crypto firms have rules they must actually follow.
| 01. Committee markup | Banking Committee debates amendments and votes to advance | Today, May 14, 2026 (pending) | First formal Senate step. Required to send the bill anywhere else. |
| 02. Senate reconciliation | Banking text merges with the Agriculture Committee’s DCIA | Days to weeks | Senate needs one unified text before a floor vote. |
| 03. Floor scheduling | Majority Leader places the bill on the calendar | Late May through June 2026 | Memorial Day recess starts May 21. No floor action that week. |
| 04. Floor debate | Open debate, more amendments, potential filibuster fights | One to three weeks of floor time | Shapes the final Senate text. Vote counts get tested live. |
| 05. Full Senate vote | 60 votes needed to pass | Late June or July 2026 in the best case | Requires roughly 9 to 10 Democrats to join all Republicans. |
| 06. House reconciliation | Senate and House versions must be aligned | Two to six weeks after Senate passage | House passed a different version in July 2025. Differences must be resolved. |
| 07. Final approval | Both chambers vote on the reconciled bill | Days to weeks | Last legislative step before the President. |
| 08. Presidential signature | President signs the bill into law | Within 10 days of final passage | White House is targeting July 4 for the signing. |
| 09. Agency rulemaking | SEC, CFTC, and Treasury draft proposed rules | 6 to 12 months after enactment | The law sets the framework. Agencies write the rulebook. |
| 10. Public comment | Industry and public submit feedback on proposed rules | 30 to 90 days per rule | Where firms flag unworkable provisions before they lock in. |
| 11. Final rules issued | Agencies publish the binding regulations | 12 to 18 months after enactment | Sets the exact standards firms must follow. |
| 12. Compliance deadlines | Phase-in periods for registration and reporting | 6 to 24 months after final rules | Real operational changes start here. |
| 13. Active enforcement | Agencies begin auditing and penalizing non-compliance | 18 to 36 months after enactment | The framework is officially live. |
04 Can Crypto Be Fully Regulated by June?
No. Not in any honest reading of the word “regulated.”
Here is what could realistically happen by June if today’s vote passes: the bill clears the Senate Banking Committee, the Agriculture and Banking versions get merged, and the full Senate begins floor consideration. The White House is targeting a July 4 signing. To get there, today’s markup must pass, then 60 votes in a full Senate floor vote, then reconciliation with the House-passed text from July 2025. That timeline is tight but not impossible.
There is real historical reason for optimism on the 60-vote threshold. The GENIUS Act, which became the U.S.’s first comprehensive stablecoin law in July 2025, cleared the Senate 68-30, easily clearing the supermajority threshold despite a partisan committee process. The Senate has demonstrated, repeatedly, that crypto legislation can move from partisan committee votes to bipartisan floor passage when industry pressure aligns with electoral incentives.
Here is what cannot happen by June: actual enforceable rules that crypto firms must comply with. Even if the President signed the bill tomorrow, the SEC and CFTC would still need to draft proposed rules, run public comment periods, revise based on industry feedback, and publish final rules. That process takes at least a year, often longer, and is required by federal administrative law. There is no shortcut.
The legislative side could move faster than people expect. The implementation side cannot.
05 Best Case, Realistic, and Slow Scenarios
Best Case
OptimisticToday’s markup advances cleanly. The merged Senate bill hits the floor in early June, picks up the 9 to 10 Democrats needed, and passes before the July 4 recess. The House accepts the Senate version quickly. The President signs on or near July 4. Agencies fast-track rulemaking. Initial registration pathways open in late 2026 or early 2027. Full compliance frameworks take hold across 2027.
Realistic
Most likelyCommittee vote advances on roughly party lines. Reconciling with the Agriculture text takes a few weeks. Floor debate extends through June and into July as Democrats negotiate ethics provisions and other amendments. A final Senate vote happens in mid to late summer 2026. House reconciliation pushes signing to fall 2026. Rulemaking stretches well into 2027, with most compliance deadlines landing in 2027 and 2028.
Slow Case
Risk scenarioToday’s vote stalls or fails. Floor negotiations break down on stablecoin yields, ethics language, or banking provisions. The bill cannot find 60 votes before the August recess. Midterm campaign season takes over the calendar. Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno have both warned that failure before Memorial Day could push the next viable legislative window to 2030 or beyond.
06 What Regulators Will Need to Do After the Bill Passes
Passing a law and writing a rulebook are very different jobs. If signed, the CLARITY Act would direct the SEC, the CFTC, and to a lesser extent the Treasury Department to draft specific rules covering registration standards for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers, the technical test for when a digital asset is sufficiently decentralized to qualify as a digital commodity, custody and asset segregation requirements, disclosure standards, anti-money laundering compliance under the Bank Secrecy Act, and coordination with the GENIUS Act on stablecoin issuance.
Each rule goes through a notice-and-comment process under the Administrative Procedure Act. Agencies publish a proposed rule. They take comments for 30 to 90 days. They revise. They publish a final rule. Companies then get a compliance grace period, usually 6 to 24 months depending on complexity. SEC Chair Paul Atkins publicly urged Congress on April 9 to move CLARITY to the President’s desk, stating that both the SEC and CFTC stand ready to implement the law. CFTC Chair Mike Selig has separately called for “immediate passage.” Stated readiness helps. It does not eliminate the procedural floor.
07 What Crypto Companies and Investors Should Watch
Five signals that will shape what happens next
Today’s vote result
The single most important signal in the near term. Whether the committee advances the bill, and on what margin, sets the tone for everything that follows.
The final committee text
Members filed more than 100 amendments before markup, with over 40 from Senator Elizabeth Warren alone. Which survive and which are rejected will tell you the real shape of the bill. Warren’s most consequential amendment would block the Federal Reserve from granting master accounts to crypto companies, a structural restriction that goes well beyond market structure.
The decentralization test
The line between security and commodity hinges on it. Token issuers, especially those with active development teams, need to understand the threshold the bill sets.
Stablecoin language
The Tillis-Alsobrooks compromise survived intense pressure to get this far. If floor amendments unravel it, expect issuers and banks to fight harder.
Internal preparation
Firms should not wait for final rules to start drafting compliance plans. Registration pathways, custody segregation, AML programs, and disclosure templates will all need to be ready before the rules drop.
08 What This Means for Investors and Crypto Users
Whatever happens today, nothing changes immediately for day-to-day users. The exchange you used yesterday operates under the same rules today, and will tomorrow.
Over the medium term, if the bill eventually becomes law, three things shift. Bitcoin’s commodity status, currently an interpretive position, gets written into statute. Ethereum and other large-cap tokens get a clearer path to commodity classification, depending on how the decentralization test plays out. Smaller tokens may face stricter registration requirements as securities, and exchanges may pull or restrict assets that cannot meet either standard. Stablecoins continue under the GENIUS Act, which is already law, with CLARITY adding coordination provisions.
For investors, the practical takeaway is patience. A bill moving through committee is not a bill creating tradeable rules.
Conclusion
Today’s vote could be a turning point. After two cancelled sessions, months of stablecoin negotiations, Coinbase pulling and then restoring support, a bipartisan compromise, a banking lobby revolt, and more than 100 filed amendments, the Senate Banking Committee is finally set to vote on the most consequential crypto bill in U.S. history.
If the committee advances the bill, that is a real milestone. It is not the finish line. The road to enforceable federal crypto rules still runs through a 60-vote Senate floor fight, House reconciliation, a presidential signature, and a long agency rulemaking process. June will likely bring more progress. June will not bring a fully regulated U.S. crypto market.
The right posture for the industry and for investors is steady preparation. Watch today’s result. Read the final text when it lands. Track the floor math. Start drafting compliance plans now. The framework may finally be moving. The work of building inside it is only just beginning.
FAQs
Has the CLARITY Act passed today’s vote?
No. The vote is scheduled for May 14 at 10:30 a.m. ET. The result is expected later today. This article will be updated once it is confirmed.
Is the CLARITY Act now law?
No. Today’s session is a Senate Banking Committee markup, not a final passage vote. Even if the committee advances the bill, it still needs a full Senate vote, reconciliation with the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, reconciliation with the House version, and a presidential signature before it becomes law.
What happens immediately after a successful markup?
The committee version gets merged with the Senate Agriculture Committee’s parallel bill into one unified text. Senate leadership then schedules floor time once they are confident they have 60 votes.
Can crypto be fully regulated by June 2026?
No. The bill could possibly pass the full Senate by June or July in the best case, but agency rulemaking, public comment periods, and compliance phase-ins mean enforceable rules will not exist until 2027 at the earliest.
Which agencies will write and enforce the rules?
The SEC handles digital asset securities. The CFTC handles digital commodities. The Treasury Department handles illicit finance, AML, and stablecoin coordination with the existing GENIUS Act framework.
What should crypto investors watch next?
Today’s vote result, the final committee text, surviving amendments, the Senate floor schedule, vote counts of undecided Democrats, the final decentralization test language, and stablecoin yield provisions.
Will this affect Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and altcoins differently?
Yes, if it eventually becomes law. Bitcoin would get statutory commodity status. Ethereum and large-cap tokens likely qualify as commodities depending on decentralization criteria. Many smaller altcoins may be classified as securities and face stricter exchange listing requirements. Stablecoins fall under the GENIUS Act with CLARITY coordination.
What is the worst case if the bill stalls?
If today’s vote fails or the bill stalls on the floor before the August recess, midterm election politics could push it into 2027. Some senators have warned that a stall could delay comprehensive market structure legislation until 2030 or beyond.
