U.S. Congress advances crypto bill

The Senate Banking Committee moved the CLARITY Act out of committee on May 14, 2026, giving the crypto industry its latest piece of federal legislation to watch. The bill is H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, a market-structure measure that would set rules for how digital assets are regulated in the United States. Committee Chairman Tim Scott said the panel advanced it by a 15-9 vote, and the measure now goes to the Senate floor. The measure sits alongside a separate stablecoin law already on the books. Congress.gov shows the GENIUS Act, S.1582, became Public Law 119-27 on July 18, 2025, after passing the Senate and House. That means the current Senate fight is over broader crypto market structure, while payment-stablecoin rules already have a federal framework. ### So what exactly advanced this week? The bill that advanced was H.R. 3633, originally introduced in the House by Rep. (banking.senate.gov) French Hill on May 29, 2025. Congress.gov says the House passed it on July 17, 2025, and the Senate Banking Committee marked it up on May 14, 2026. Senate Banking described the measure as legislation to establish “clear rules of the road” for digital assets. (congress.gov) Tim Scott said Republicans and Democrats “came together” to advance a “comprehensive market structure bill.” His committee’s release said the legislation is intended to set a regulatory framework for digital assets before a full Senate vote. ### Where do AML and KYC show up in the text? Senate Banking’s fact sheet says the bill would designate digital asset intermediaries as financial institutions under applicable law. (congress.gov) The same document says that would require anti-money-laundering programs, customer identification, recordkeeping and suspicious activity reporting. A separate Senate Banking section-by-section says digital commodity brokers, digital commodity dealers and digital commodity exchanges would be treated as financial institutions for Bank Secrecy Act purposes. (banking.senate.gov) That summary says the requirements include AML programs, customer identification and customer due diligence. Congress.gov materials for the House version point in the same direction. (banking.senate.gov) The House section-by-section says Section 111 treats digital commodity brokers, dealers and certain exchanges as “financial institutions” under the Bank Secrecy Act. ### What does the bill say about custody? The reported House text says the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission would jointly issue rules on “margin, customer protection, segregation, or other requirements.” That language appears in the reported version posted on Congress.gov and points to how customer assets would be handled across agencies. (banking.senate.gov) (financialservices.house.gov) Senate Banking’s section-by-section also says registered entities would face rules on disclosures to customers and the treatment of customer assets. That places custody and asset-segregation requirements inside the broader market-structure framework rather than leaving them entirely to case-by-case enforcement. ### If stablecoins already have a law, why do they still come up here? (congress.gov) The GENIUS Act already created a federal framework for payment stablecoins, including 1:1 reserve requirements, monthly reserve disclosures and rules on who may issue them. Congress.gov says permitted issuers must be regulated by federal or state supervisors, with state regulation limited to issuers with $10 billion or less outstanding. (banking.senate.gov) Senate Banking’s fraud-and-AML fact sheet for the CLARITY Act says Treasury would be required, under applicable law, to assess significant illicit-finance threats tied to certain offshore stablecoins used in material transaction volumes. That means stablecoins still appear in the market-structure debate where lawmakers are dealing with illicit-finance and intermediary-risk questions. (congress.gov) ### What should readers watch next? The next formal step is Senate floor consideration. Senate Banking said the bill now moves to the floor, while Congress.gov remains the main public tracker for bill text, actions and amendments. Any floor debate will show whether senators try to revise the bill’s treatment of Bank Secrecy Act coverage, customer-asset protections or the overlap with the already-enacted GENIUS Act. (banking.senate.gov) The operative documents now posted are the Senate Banking fact sheets and section-by-section materials, along with the Congress.gov text of H.R. 3633. (banking.senate.gov 1) (banking.senate.gov 2)