The passing of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s could be a major hurdle overcome in the advancement of the CLARITY Act, but Republicans and Democrats could not be further from agreement.
The US Senate Agriculture Committee advanced its markup of the CLARITY Act yesterday (January 29), passing a crucial hurdle for the regulation of cryptocurrency and stablecoins in the US.
The Committee voted 12-11 to pass the bill, with no Democrat support, and will now be sent for reporting to make technical changes where appropriate before it can be advanced to the Senate floor.
The House and Senate will then work alongside each other to finalise the bill before it can reach President Donald Trump’s office for final approval.
The CLARITY Act, otherly known as the digital asset market structure bill, intends to provide digital asset companies clear and transparent rules, regulations and guidelines on how to operate in the US.
The bill was passed by the House of Representatives in July 2025, alongside the GENIUS Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance Act, as the Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees have been drafting proposals for oversight from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), respectively.
If passed by a full Senate and House vote, with the President’s approval, the CLARITY Act would take Trump’s ambition for the US to become the “crypto capital of the world” one step closer.
“This is a key milestone in the Senate’s work on the bipartisan CLARITY Act, but there is still more work to be done to get a bill to President Trump’s desk,” said Glenn Thompson, Agriculture Chairman.
“After members of the Senate Banking Committee advance their legislation in the coming weeks, the House and Senate must work together to meld each of these packages into a final agreement that will unlock American innovation and development in the digital asset ecosystem.”
Democrats strongly oppose – lack of bipartisan support
Despite the markup advancing, Democrats on the Committee strongly opposed the draft, with all 11 representatives voting against the bill.
In the weeks leading up to the markup, which was delayed from January 26 to the 29th due to a snowstorm affecting travel in and out of Washington D.C., Chairman John Boozman said there were “fundamental policy issues” relating to proposals around the draft.
This was due to a lack of bipartisan support and while all 11 Democrats opposed, as Republicans hold a majority in the Senate, the bill ultimately passed.
Speaking at the Committee hearing on the vote, Democrat Senator Elissa Slotkin felt “disappointed” over the lack of bipartisan agreement and questioned the ethics of Trump’s pursuit to accelerate the progression of the CLARITY Act to be passed.
“I’m disappointed. It feels like the White House came on top of everything and said ‘well you’re doing this work and you’re being diligent but we want what we want, and so we’re going to shortcut what you’re doing and turn this into a partisan issue’”.
“The ethics piece to me is a part of it. If we’re honest with ourselves, if any President, Democrat or Republican, had earned what I understand to be $867m worth of various cryptocurrencies, I know the other side of the aisle would be having a conniption right now if this was Joe Biden or Barack Obama.
“$336m is just from (the President’s) memcoin. We have to address that issue, it is a glaring issue. It’s just so obvious and I understand this is hard, but that is the job of separate branches of government to push back on that kind of abuse of power.”
Slotkin also raised concerns regarding the lack of bipartisan oversight from the CFTC, noting there should be five commissioners, both Republican and Democrat, and not one. Michael S. Selig, Chairman of the CFTC and Trump’s nominee, is the sole representative overseeing the drafting of the bill.
Democrat Amy Klobuchar also attempted to explain why Democrats aren’t in full support of the bill yet. “The progress that has been made here is good, but I think we believe that we’re not quite done yet,” she said during the hearing. Klobuchar said sticking points are ethics regarding public officials, protecting the independence of the CFTC, and strengthening consumer protections.
What is the Committee proposing?
The Agriculture Committee is tasked with authorising new powers and oversight to the CFTC for crypto regulations.
The core objectives proposed by the Committee’s draft in November:
- A clear definition of digital commodities and the establishment of a spot market digital commodity regulatory regime with the CFTC
- Robust consumer protections including customer fund segregation requirements, conflict of interest safeguards, appropriate customer disclosure requirements, and prohibitions on certain affiliated trading
- A trading registration regime designed to facilitate liquid and resilient regulated markets while protecting retail participants
- Requirements for the CFTC and SEC to coordinate and collaborate on necessary inter-agency rulemakings
- Protections for self-custody and innovative technology
- A new funding stream for the CFTC to stand up a spot market regulatory regime.
The draft outlines the CFTC to have oversight of digital asset ownership limits, registration over intermediaries and taking over from the SEC of the “blockchain maturity test”, which encompasses limits, criteria for blockchain sufficiency and certification.
One of the leading Democrats on the Committee, Cory Booker, took issue with the disregard to his concerns regarding greater security provisions over decentralised finance, in which he stated were left out of the bill. Booker also expressed frustration in the lack of bipartisan collaboration on the markup as he believes it could have had a smoother voting process.
“The product put before us today (January 29) is not the bipartisan draft that we have been working on,” said Booker.
“It was negotiated with two parties at the table, but it isn’t in accord with the principles we laid out in November in a bipartisan way. However, despite this, I still deeply believe in the work that we’ve done.
“We’re almost in the red zone on this bill, and that frustrates me, because I see a bipartisan glide path to land this plane, to punch through the end zone.”
During the hearing on January 29, several amendments were debated, including Democrat Senator Michael Bennet‘s amendment, which would bar the President, Vice-President, all federal elected officials, and certain family members from profiting off crypto while in office and require any covered assets to be placed in a blind trust. This was not agreed to.
The second amendment on the docket was Democrat Senator Dick Durbin‘s, which looked to prevent a bailout of crypto intermediaries in the event of bankruptcy. “I’m a crypto skeptic and unless there is meaningful, enforceable regulation, I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole,” said Durbin. The amendment was not agreed to.
A second amendment from Durbin was also heard – to protect victims of ATM scams by requiring CFTC registration, kiosk location disclosure, mandatory fraud warnings, and daily transaction limits. Ultimately Boozman said this language was already included in the Senate Banking’s portion of the bill and therefore could not be included in this version. The amendment was thus not agreed to.
The fourth and fifth amendments tabled were offered by Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, aimed at keeping US digital markets free from foreign influence and clarifying that dealer regulatory requirements apply only to specific activities requiring dealer registration.
Democrat Senator Ben Ray Lujána dded that the measures would help prevent cartels and terrorists from exploiting loopholes to influence markets. However, Tuberville withdrew the amendments, and there were no votes on them. Republican Senator Jerry Moran also withdrew his amendment.
Where do we go from here?
While the Agriculture Committee has passed its legislation, the Senate Banking Committee’s markup remains at a standstill.
Announced on January 14, the Banking Committee postponed its markup, which was set for January 15, after 130 proposed amendments were laid out. Coinbase also withdrew its support for the draft adding to further delays and dissension between policymakers, banks and crypto companies.
Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott had revealed the latest version of its legislation included a highly contentious ban on digital asset services and companies from earning interest or yield on stablecoins.
This was supported by banks over fears of financial instability and use cases for shadow banking. Crypto companies pushed back as it views the proposal as anti-competitive and opposes incentives for customers to benefit from holding stablecoins.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong cited the ban and the proposals to grant the SEC more power over the CFTC as reasons why the company withdrew its support. However, after yesterday’s vote, Armstrong said the passing of the bill was a “really important step forward”.
“Thanks to John Boozman for your leadership, and Sen. and Cory Booker for ultimately helping America get a comprehensive bipartisan crypto bill across the finish line,” he wrote on X.
The Banking Committee’s draft aims to grant the SEC powers over the regulation of “ancillary assets”, defined as “intangible, fungible, network-dependent digital commodities whose value relies on the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of a specific person or entity”, according to Davis Wright Tremaine.
In order for the CLARITY Act to reach a full House and Senate vote, the Banking Committee needs to come to a party-line vote before it can advance.
Similar to the Agriculture Committee, there are more Republican representatives (13) on the Banking Committee than Democrats (11), which could see no need for bipartisan support.
