The Senate Banking Committee plans to hold its long-awaited margin hearing for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (also known as the Clarity Act) on Thursday, May 14 at 10:30 a.m.
The Clarity Act was largely left in limbo after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced that the exchange would withdraw its support for stablecoin performance and other provisions in January. Last week, Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks released compromise language addressing yield, which would prohibit crypto companies from offering yield on static holdings of stablecoin reserves, but would allow rewards for stablecoins engaged in activities, seemingly resolving one of the key issues blocking the bill’s advancement.
The committee did not release the full text of the updated bill as of press time.
Banking industry groups said they had problems with this compromise text and would provide comments. A letter released Friday by several banking trade associations, including the American Bankers Association, the Banking Policy Institute, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the National Bankers Association and the Consumer Bankers Association, said that “additional work is needed to arrive at language that embraces the innovation represented by digital assets while protecting consumers.”
The letter includes recommendations with specific edits to the text of the provision published last week.
The scheduling of a review hearing suggests that lawmakers are ready to move forward with the current version of the text regardless of these concerns.
There are still other outstanding issues: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a longtime supporter of the cryptocurrency industry, told the audience at Consensus Miami last week that the Clarity Act needs an ethics provision that prevents top government officials from profiting from the cryptocurrency industry while regulating it. His office reiterated that position in a Thursday press release, which cited polling data commissioned by CoinDesk that found that 73% of registered U.S. voters believe top government officials should not have business ties to the industry.
However, this issue may not be addressed in the Senate Banking version of the bill; After the bank margin, the Senate will need to merge this version of the bill with the Senate Agriculture Committee’s version before the Senate at large can vote to advance the bill.
