What Comes Next: Four Remaining Steps

Committee approval is an important milestone, but it is far from the finish line. Before President Donald Trump can sign the Clarity Act into law, the legislation must clear several more hurdles.

First, the version passed by the Banking Committee must be merged with the bill drafted by the Senate Agriculture Committee, which approved its own version of the legislation — the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act — back in January 2026.

Second, the combined Senate version must secure 60 votes on the Senate floor — a threshold that is virtually impossible to reach without bipartisan support.

Third, the Senate text must be reconciled with the version passed by the House of Representatives.

Only after all three steps are complete will the bill reach Trump's desk for signature.

Politically, it is notable that two Democratic senators — Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks — crossed the aisle to vote in favor of the bill. This is the first concrete sign of a potential bipartisan majority, without which the 60-vote Senate threshold cannot be cleared. Both senators have already signaled, however, that they will push for stricter ethical standards in the next round of negotiations.

Why the Clarity Act Matters

The law's primary goal is to resolve a long-standing regulatory deadlock over which agency is responsible for overseeing digital assets in the United States. Under the proposed framework, tokens with the characteristics of securities would remain under SEC jurisdiction, while digital commodities — including Bitcoin — would fall exclusively under the authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For Coinbase, Kraken, and other major exchanges operating in the US market, this would eliminate a substantial portion of the legal uncertainty they have faced for years.

A separate component of the legislation — the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act — extends protections to developers. Those who write open-source code, maintain wallets, or operate network nodes without controlling customer funds would no longer be classified as financial intermediaries. Criminal liability would only apply in cases where direct involvement in unlawful activity can be proven.

The stablecoin provisions represent a hard-fought compromise. Passive yield earned simply from holding stablecoins remains prohibited, while activity-based rewards — such as cashback and loyalty programs — are permitted. This point was contested until mid-May: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong briefly withdrew his support for the bill before an agreement was finally reached.

What This Means for the Market

If the Clarity Act passes in the near term, it would send a powerful bullish signal across the entire crypto industry. Institutional investors who have deferred decisions for years due to regulatory uncertainty would finally have the clarity needed to deploy capital into Bitcoin and other digital assets. The implications extend beyond US borders as well: Europe, which has long considered itself ahead of the United States on crypto regulation — with MiCA in force since early 2025 — would face a significant new challenge to that position. The passage of the Clarity Act would sharply intensify the regulatory competition between the world's two largest financial blocs.

According to data from the prediction platform Polymarket, the probability of the Clarity Act being signed into law in 2026 rose from 62% to 69% following today's vote.