The bill’s latest holdover to fully integrate the cryptocurrency industry into the U.S. financial system centers on Senator Thom Tillis’s request that bankers have more time to negotiate the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act’s approach to the controversial topic of stablecoin rewards. That might be the end of it.
Tillis told reporters on Wednesday that work on the Clarification Act, a top priority for the industry in Washington, “addresses many of the concerns” of bank lobbyists who have been defending the turf of interest-earning deposits, which they believe could be threatened by stablecoin yields. “I will encourage the chairman to continue to raise prices,” the Republican congressman said, according to a transcript of his speech on Fox Business Channel.
That could provide an opportunity for a mid-May hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, which would need to advance the legislation before hammering out a final version for a vote by the full Senate. If something else gets in the way of that timing, it could be fatal for the Clarification Act of 2026, as the remaining Senate schedule leaves little room for flexibility.
The bill faces several hurdles before it goes to President Donald Trump to be signed into law. The first are so-called markup hearings, which give lawmakers a chance to make changes to the language. Tillis said he intends to give stakeholders a chance to see the compromise text on stablecoin yields in the days before the hearing and welcomes bankers to continue negotiations if there is anything else they want to agree on.
“We could probably help a lot more people if they were willing to come to work in good faith,” Tillis said.
Cryptocurrency insiders have been critical of the banking industry’s apparent reluctance to accept compromise, as has Trump himself, who said over the weekend that he would not let bankers derail the Clarification Act. The industry viewed Tillis’ latest comments as a positive sign for action.
“The May price increases are stronger than ever,” said Cody Carbone, CEO of the Washington Digital Chamber. “We support getting this bill on the committee calendar as soon as possible and we hope it will be acted upon immediately.”
Other thorny provisions remain to be worked out, the most notable of which may be a provision pushed by Democrats to bar government officials from having personal business interests in cryptocurrencies — a move that largely targets Trump and his family, who are deeply involved in the industry. Tillis reportedly said he agreed the bill needed such an ethics requirement, although the issue would not come up in the Banking Committee’s work.
Another potential hurdle that cryptocurrency advocates are concerned about is a push by Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley that some aspects of the legislation — including legal protections for decentralized finance (DeFi) developers — should pass his committee.
Any further delays to the bill would jeopardize its chances of getting off the ground, with about 11 weeks left on the Senate calendar before lawmakers fully dissolve to deal with midterm election demands. Senate passage will then go to the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed its own version of the CLARIFICATION Act last year. Any uprising by House Republicans could create more problems for the bill’s success, but so far supporters are counting on the House to approve the Senate’s final product.
The House has recently struggled to come to terms with Senate efforts, such as on funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Read More: Cryptocurrency’s Big Hopes on Senate Clarification Act Still Have Way to Survive Tight Calendar
