From the Agriculture Committee's 12-11 partisan vote in January to the stablecoin yield compromise in early May, which led to Circle's stock price surging 26% in two days, the CLARITY bill took more than four months to reach the Banking Committee's review stage.
According to Eleanor Terrett, the Banking Committee has distributed the draft text to some industry members, but it is still in the final stages and is expected to be considered as a priority by the Democratic Party office. Committee members will then vote on the full text of the bill and all proposed amendments one by one.
The latter two committee versions will be merged.
The legislative framework of the CLARITY Act is divided into two parallel tracks: the Senate Agriculture Committee is responsible for the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, which defines the CFTC’s jurisdiction over decentralized assets; while the Banking Committee is responsible for the SEC’s regulatory scope and stablecoin provisions.
The Agriculture Committee passed its version by a 12-11 partisan vote on January 29, becoming the first cryptocurrency market structure bill in U.S. history to pass a Senate committee. If the Banking Committee also passes it on May 14, the two bills will be merged into the full version of the CLARITY bill, which will then be submitted to the full Senate for a vote.
The Council of Agriculture's version has been sitting for three and a half months. The longer the Banking Commission drags on, the greater the differences in the versions of the articles that need to be aligned during the merger will be. At least a deadline has been given for the review and finalization.
Stablecoin yields: a compromise between the two parties.
The key turning point that accelerated the review process was the stablecoin yield compromise reached on May 2 by Senators Thom Tillis (Republican) and Angela Alsobrooks (Democrat): issuers are prohibited from paying yields equivalent to bank deposit rates, but loyalty programs, transaction rewards, and subscription bonuses under the "goodwill campaign" framework are retained.
Following the announcement of the compromise, Circle (CRCL) surged 26% in two days, Coinbase rose more than 6%, and crypto stocks across the board rallied.
However, the differences have not completely disappeared. Senator Gillibrand publicly called for the bill to include ethics clauses in Consensus Miami, prohibiting current officials from profiting from the crypto industry while regulating it. Large banks also expressed dissatisfaction with the wording of the profit clauses, with major banks with consumer banking businesses strongly opposing them, while institutions without such businesses were more accepting.
Senator Lummis stated directly on May 6 that the CLARITY bill is the "only priority." Polymarket currently rates the bill's chances of being signed into law this year at around 70%, but this figure is likely to be quickly revised if the bill is not completed by the end of May.
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