“We keep hearing that there are other competing priorities in the Senate, and while that may be true, everyone is still prioritizing this, and that’s why you see daily readouts of different Senate groups meeting, Republicans and Democrats sitting over lunch talking about clarity on passage,” Carbone said.
Lame duck?
Some lawmakers and crypto leaders have proposed the congressional session period after the November election, a handful of weeks known as the outgoing session, as a fallback option to getting Clarity approved this year. However, that period can be very unpredictable and filled with congressional action, depending on what’s left on the agenda.
Despite the pending obstacles, some still express strong assurances that 2026 will be the year of the crypto market structure law.
“Clarity is no longer a question of if, but when Congress makes it across the finish line,” said Summer Mersinger, executive director of the Blockchain Association, in a statement to CoinDesk. “Legislators are tackling the outstanding issues with true bipartisan determination and are ready to turn years of debate into lasting law that protects consumers, provides certainty for builders, and keeps America ahead.”
But analysts are more reserved in their expectations.
“We believe that at least the Senate needs to pass the bill before its August recess for it to become law this year,” Beacon Policy Advisors, a policy research group in Washington, said in a note Monday. “While negotiations could hypothetically continue into the fall, incentives change around the midterm elections, and the chances of the bill becoming law, not just this year, will decrease significantly if the Senate misses the August deadline.”
