Clarity Act heads to Senate banking panel

Senator Bill Hagerty said the Senate Banking Committee will take up the CLARITY Act next week, putting the House-passed crypto market bill into a formal Senate review. (x.com) The bill is H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025. Congress.gov says the House passed it on July 17, 2025, by a 294-134 vote and the Senate received it on September 18, 2025, referring it to the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. (congress.gov) The House vote drew support from all Republicans and 78 Democrats, according to Congress.gov and committee summaries published after floor passage. Senate Banking Republicans later said their own discussion draft would build on that House bill. (congress.gov) (banking.senate.gov) The fight is over who regulates much of the crypto market. Congress.gov’s bill summary says the measure would generally put “digital commodities” under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission while leaving the Securities and Exchange Commission with authority over some securities-style trading venues and activities. (congress.gov) The bill also tries to sort tokens by how decentralized their underlying blockchain is. Congress.gov says a token could qualify for trading on an exchange if its blockchain is “mature” or has reached “decentralized control,” or if the issuer files required disclosures. (congress.gov) That framework has been the missing piece in Washington’s crypto agenda since Congress moved first on stablecoins. The Senate passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for United States Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, after its May 1, 2025 introduction, while the CLARITY bill has remained the broader market-structure debate. (congress.gov) (cnbc.com) Senate Banking Republicans began sketching their version on July 22, 2025. Chairman Tim Scott, Senator Cynthia Lummis, Hagerty and Senator Bernie Moreno released a discussion draft and a request for information, saying it covered issues under the committee’s jurisdiction and built on the House-passed CLARITY Act. (banking.senate.gov) (hagerty.senate.gov) Crypto companies and their political allies have pushed hard for that Senate step. Politico reported in July 2025 that the Fairshake network raised $52 million in the first half of 2025, adding to a larger campaign-spending effort aimed at lawmakers handling digital-asset legislation. (politico.com) Consumer advocates and some Democrats have argued the bill could loosen securities-law protections by moving more tokens outside the Securities and Exchange Commission’s reach. House Financial Services material from the Republican majority, by contrast, described the measure as a system for joint Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight with new exchange, broker and custody rules. (congress.gov) (financialservices.house.gov) Next comes the committee process Hagerty flagged. If the Senate Banking Committee advances a text, senators would still need to reconcile any Senate changes with the House bill before a final version could reach the president. (congress.gov)