U.S. crypto policy is moving beyond deregulation toward the design of a formal market structure. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a motion on August 8 to advance a key procedural vote on the CLARITY Act, with a vote expected after the Senate returns from its mid-September recess. Passage will require 60 votes, meaning all Republican senators and at least eight Democrats would need to support the bill.
At the heart of the legislation is an effort to establish when a digital token should be treated as a security or a commodity and to clarify the respective authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The U.S. crypto market has long faced legal uncertainty over whether securities laws apply to particular tokens and which agency should supervise them. If enacted, the CLARITY Act would give the United States a federal framework covering crypto trading, brokerage and custody, building on its recently established stablecoin rules.
Crypto Competition Shifts From Technology to Market Infrastructure
The significance of this transition extends well beyond the price of Bitcoin or any individual token. Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the U.S. crypto industry has committed about $200 million to supporting pro-crypto candidates, while Fairshake, its leading political action committee, has raised more than $136 million for the current election cycle. The industry spent roughly $170 million during the 2024 election and subsequently secured a major policy victory with the passage of the GENIUS Act, which regulates dollar-pegged stablecoins.
The CLARITY Act matters because it would determine not merely whether crypto assets are permitted, but who may issue them, who may facilitate their trading and which institutions will oversee them. Exchanges, brokers and custodians would face registration, disclosure and consumer-protection obligations, while tokens operating on sufficiently decentralized networks could gain a pathway toward classification as commodities. The legislation would therefore lay part of the institutional foundation needed to connect crypto assets with the established financial system.
Commenting on Washington’s pro-crypto legislative shift, Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Britain’s Hargreaves Lansdown, said legislation under the Trump administration had signaled a change in attitudes toward the crypto industry, although lawmakers remained cautious. His assessment suggests that greater regulatory clarity does not by itself resolve concerns surrounding financial stability and investor protection.
Banks Are Worried About Their Ability to Generate Deposits
One of the most contentious issues is the payment of rewards on stablecoin holdings. The current Senate proposal would restrict rewards on idle stablecoin balances that resemble interest on bank deposits while allowing incentives linked to genuine transaction activity, including payments. Banks argue that if crypto platforms expand stablecoin rewards, deposits could migrate out of the traditional banking system and weaken lenders’ capacity to extend credit.
The potential scale is substantial. Standard Chartered estimated earlier this year that the growth of stablecoins could draw approximately $500 billion in deposits away from U.S. banks by the end of 2028. Bank deposits are not simply a means of storing money; they are a central source of funding for loans to businesses and households. Stablecoin growth could therefore directly affect the banking system’s ability to supply credit.
The crypto industry counters that preventing third-party exchanges from offering stablecoin rewards would amount to anticompetitive regulation designed to protect incumbent banks. The debate surrounding the CLARITY Act is consequently expanding beyond a simple confrontation between crypto companies and banks. It is becoming a competition over who will attract deposits, process payments and provide credit in the digital economy.
The U.S. Is Building an Operating System for Digital Finance
Political obstacles remain. Some Democratic lawmakers are demanding stronger ethics provisions because of potential conflicts of interest involving President Donald Trump’s family and its crypto ventures. Reports that the Trump family earned approximately $1.4 billion from crypto-related businesses in 2025 have made the issue a significant factor in negotiations over the bill.
Even so, the Senate’s move to bring the legislation back toward a floor vote is important in itself. Washington is seeking to bring stablecoins, token classification, exchanges, custody and institutional trading under a more unified regulatory architecture. That framework could eventually extend to tokenized securities and government bonds, cross-border payments and transactions conducted by artificial intelligence agents.
The next phase of U.S. digital asset policy is no longer about deciding whether crypto should be allowed. It is about determining who can issue digital assets, who can trade them, who will supervise the market and how the new system will connect with traditional finance. The deeper significance of the CLARITY Act is that the United States is beginning not only to regulate crypto markets, but to build the operating system for digital finance.
