Senate Banking Committee schedules May 14 markup of the CLARITY Act

Crypto regulation is back in motion in the Senate — and this time the date is real. The Senate Banking Committee has scheduled an executive session for Thursday, May 14, to consider H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025. That matters because this bill is the Senate’s big attempt to decide who regulates what in crypto, after years of turf fights between the SEC and CFTC and months of stalled negotiations on Capitol Hill. The immediate trigger is simple: a January markup got pulled at the last minute, and now the committee is trying again. ### What is this bill actually trying to do? The CLARITY Act is a market-structure bill. Basically, it tries to draw the legal line between digital assets that should be treated like securities and those that should be treated more like commodities, while adding rules for disclosures, intermediaries, illicit-finance controls, and parts of DeFi. The Senate draft also folds in sections on cybersecurity, digital-asset kiosks, offshore stablecoins, and studies on financial-stability risks in decentralized finance. (banking.senate.gov) ### Why is the May 14 markup a big deal? Because markup is where a committee stops talking in theory and starts editing, amending, and voting on actual bill text. The Senate Banking Committee’s notice says the session starts at 10:30 a.m. in Dirksen 538 and is specifically for H.R. 3633. That turns the bill from a background policy debate into a live legislative event with real odds of moving toward the Senate floor. (banking.senate.gov) ### Why did this get stuck before? The short version is stablecoin yield. Chairman Tim Scott had announced a markup for January 15, 2026, but canceled it on January 14 as bipartisan negotiations continued. The dispute wasn’t just partisan. Crypto firms and banks both objected, but for opposite reasons — crypto wanted room for rewards programs, while banks argued the bill could let token products compete too directly with insured deposits. (banking.senate.gov) ### So what’s the fight over now? The same issue, just in a narrower form. Banking groups are still warning that the latest language on stablecoin rewards is too close to interest-bearing deposit products. Crypto advocates are saying the compromise language is restrictive enough and, in practice, bans the kind of yield-bearing stablecoin setup banks fear. That sounds technical, but the commercial stakes are obvious — if stablecoins can pay something that feels like savings-account yield, they become much more competitive as consumer cash products. (banking.senate.gov) ### Why are labor unions involved? Because the opposition widened beyond banks. The AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFT, NEA, and AFSCME have urged senators to oppose the bill, arguing it could inject more crypto risk into retirement accounts and public pensions. That does two things politically — it gives skeptical Democrats more cover to resist the bill, and it reframes the debate away from “innovation versus regulation” toward “worker savings versus industry expansion.” (cnbc.com) ### Is this bipartisan or basically party-line? Right now, it looks closer to party-line in committee. CNBC reported the vote was expected to track party lines, even though some Democrats have been involved in negotiations for months. The catch is that a committee vote is not the same thing as broad Senate support. If Democrats still want stronger ethics, safety, or consumer-protection language, the real bargaining may just move to the next stage. (cnbc.com) ### What should crypto markets watch? Watch the amendments, not just the headline vote. If the committee keeps a hard line on stablecoin rewards, that favors crypto rails built around payments and settlement more than products that mimic bank deposits. If senators soften that language, banks will push back harder and the floor path could get messier. Either way, May 14 is the first concrete test of whether the Senate can turn months of crypto-policy talk into law. (cnbc.com) ### Bottom line This is no longer a draft floating around Washington. It’s a scheduled Senate markup with a live fight over stablecoin economics, Democratic votes, and whether crypto gets a federal rulebook this year. (banking.senate.gov)