After months of negotiations, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Thursday passed the Clarity Act by a vote of 15 to 9, advancing long-stalled legislation on digital asset market structure and marking renewed progress for a crypto regulatory framework in Congress. The bill would grant the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) primary regulatory authority over most digital assets, while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would retain oversight of digital securities. The legislation will now proceed to the full Senate for consideration and must be reconciled with a version from the Agriculture Committee.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott stated, "This legislation does not take sides between traditional finance and new technology. It brings digital assets out of the shadows and into a safer, fairer, and more transparent system." The 15-9 vote is likely to be welcomed by the crypto industry, which has long sought clear rules for the digital asset space, but the bill still faces challenges. It remains unclear whether senators, after consulting with the White House, can reach a bipartisan agreement on ethics provisions aimed at limiting government officials from profiting from crypto-related businesses. These ethics concerns primarily target President Trump, whose family wealth has been altered by digital assets. Some Democrats have also indicated they will not support the legislation without stronger consumer protections and provisions regarding software developer liability. If these obstacles can be overcome with sufficient Democratic support, the bill could garner enough votes to pass the Senate. It would then require another vote in the House of Representatives, which passed a different version of the legislation in 2025.
Stablecoin Rewards Not a Bank "Killer" A bipartisan compromise reached by Senators Tom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks facilitated the committee vote, following months of back-and-forth negotiations among lawmakers, banking groups, and crypto companies. A key focus of these talks was whether crypto exchanges have the right to offer rewards to customers holding stablecoins—crypto tokens pegged to assets like the U.S. dollar. A previous committee vote attempt in January was derailed when Coinbase Global, Inc. CEO Brian Armstrong withdrew support due to efforts at the time to restrict such rewards.
Banking groups have consistently expressed concerns that offering users rewards tied to stablecoins—particularly for simply holding them in a digital wallet—could lead to deposit outflows and weaken banks' lending capacity. The latest version of the legislation allows crypto companies to offer rewards for using stablecoins for payments or transactions but prohibits rewards for activities akin to traditional account deposits.
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) has argued that if passed legislation explicitly permits specific interest payments on stablecoins—which often promise higher returns—small banks could risk losing $1.3 trillion in deposits and $850 billion in lending capacity. However, this claim has been rebutted by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), which stated that prohibiting such rewards would only marginally increase traditional lending—by about 0.02%, or $2.1 billion—with most of that growth going to large banks, not community lenders. The Council noted: "The conditions for seeking positive social welfare effects through a rewards ban are simply not realistic. In short, a rewards ban would do little to protect bank lending but would deprive consumers of the benefit of competitive returns on stablecoin holdings."
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