WASHINGTON - The Senate Banking Committee advanced the long-awaited Clarity Act Thursday, bringing the cryptocurrency industry one step closer to finally knowing exactly which federal agency it will spend millions of dollars arguing with.
The bill is intended to clarify when digital assets fall under different regulatory regimes and resolve years of uncertainty between securities, commodities, banking and other rules. Lawmakers called the legislation a historic breakthrough in converting ambiguity into several hundred pages of more organized ambiguity.
"For too long, crypto firms have asked whether a token is a security, commodity, payment instrument, governance asset or magic internet bean," said a Senate aide. "Under this bill, there will be a formal process for discovering that after litigation."
Banks and crypto companies continued fighting over stablecoin rewards, with traditional lenders warning that yield-bearing digital dollars could siphon deposits from banks. Crypto firms countered that consumers should be free to choose who pays them almost nothing on their cash.
The industry spent heavily supporting pro-crypto candidates, while critics sought stronger safeguards involving money laundering and political conflicts of interest.
Lawmakers emphasized that the legislation is called the Clarity Act because "Jurisdictional Boundary Framework For Assets Everyone Will Rename Next Year" would not fit on a podium.
Bitcoin, which has operated for seventeen years without asking Congress what it is, continued producing blocks.
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Reuters - "US Senate committee advances crypto bill in milestone for digital assets" (May 14, 2026)
