Lummis says CLARITY Act must pass this year as Senate eyes April markup
Sen. Cynthia Lummis says the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act “must be completed by the end of the year,” with Republicans planning a late‑April Banking Committee markup after months of delay.
- Lummis told colleagues the CLARITY Act “must be completed by the end of the year,” and said Republican members of Senate Banking aim to start markup in late April after Easter.
- The bill would split oversight of “digital commodities” and securities between the CFTC and SEC, set rules for exchanges and issuers, and plug gaps left by the 2025 GENIUS Act stablecoin law.
- A dispute over banning passive stablecoin yield had stalled progress and even cost Coinbase’s support, but Lummis now says compromises on yield and DeFi language are “largely reached,” putting pressure on Washington to finish the job in a crowded 2026 calendar.
Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) delivered her clearest deadline yet for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on Wednesday, declaring during discussions reported by crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett that the landmark cryptocurrency market structure bill “must be completed by the end of the year” — regardless of the obstacles that have repeatedly delayed its progress. Lummis also revealed that the Republican side of the Senate Banking Committee is planning to initiate the bill’s markup process in late April, after the Easter holiday recess.
The remarks represent a significant hardening of Lummis’s posture on the CLARITY Act — formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — which has been the most consequential piece of pending crypto legislation in Congress since the passage of the GENIUS Act stablecoin law in July 2025. Lummis, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Digital Assets, has been the bill’s most prominent champion, framing it as essential to U.S. leadership in digital finance and arguing that it would establish regulatory protections that future administrations could not easily reverse.
A Bill Defined by Sticking Points
The CLARITY Act seeks to resolve the long-running jurisdictional dispute between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over digital assets, assigning the CFTC primary oversight authority over digital commodities while preserving SEC authority over tokens classified as securities. It also sets registration and disclosure requirements for crypto trading platforms and token issuers. The House passed its version of the bill in 2025, but the Senate has advanced a narrower iteration that imposes stricter customer-protection requirements and limits regulatory discretion — setting up a “high-stakes negotiation” between the two chambers over the final text.
The thorniest unresolved issue has been stablecoin yield. An earlier draft of the Senate’s CLARITY Act included language prohibiting stablecoin issuers from paying interest or yield solely for holding a stablecoin balance — a provision designed to prevent payment stablecoins from competing directly with insured bank deposits. The clause would permit activity-based rewards tied to real usage — such as payments, liquidity provision, staking, or network governance participation — but bar passive yield simply for custody. Coinbase cited these provisions as grounds for withdrawing its support for the bill, while banking groups backed the restrictions.
Wednesday’s statement from Lummis offered the most encouraging signal yet that this impasse is breaking. She said a solution on the stablecoin yield question “has been largely reached,” and added that disputes over DeFi-related provisions have also “been properly addressed”. Sources familiar with the negotiations had previously described talks between legislators and industry as moving “in the right direction,” with Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone expressing optimism about securing an affirmative vote.
The late-April markup timeline is more concrete than any previously announced. Earlier in the year, the Banking Committee had scheduled a markup for January only to pull it the day before, after Lummis acknowledged that the bill needed further agreement — particularly around the concerns of banks and credit unions worried about stablecoin-driven deposit outflows. The delay prompted open frustration from Lummis, who had urged Democratic colleagues not to retreat from months of bipartisan progress.
With the GENIUS Act already signed into law and its implementing regulations now under OCC review, the CLARITY Act represents the remaining pillar of what the industry has long called a comprehensive U.S. digital asset regulatory framework. Lummis has set a year-end deadline. Whether Washington can hold to it — in a legislative calendar already crowded by geopolitical crises and a contentious Fed cycle — will determine whether 2026 becomes the year crypto finally gets its rules.
