TechFlow News, May 2: Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Research, stated that the U.S. crypto market structure bill—the CLARITY Act—has entered a critical legislative phase. With the Senate’s key compromise proposal on stablecoin yield officially released, positive signals have emerged for the bill’s advancement. The Senate Banking Committee could begin formal consideration as early as the week of May 11. The new proposal explicitly expands the scope of restrictions on stablecoin yield—from issuers to third-party platforms, including crypto exchanges such as Coinbase—and stipulates that yield must not be paid solely because users hold stablecoins (i.e., idle balances), nor may rewards be distributed in forms economically or functionally equivalent to bank deposit interest.
Alex Thorn noted that if the Banking Committee’s review is delayed beyond mid-May, the probability of enacting the legislation by 2026 would decline significantly. If the bill fails to pass this year, comprehensive crypto market structure legislation could be postponed until 2030—or even later. Currently, the probability of the CLARITY Act being formally signed into law by 2026 stands at approximately 50%, and could be even lower.
The CLARITY Act previously passed the House of Representatives in July 2025 with overwhelming bipartisan support—294 votes in favor and 134 opposed. Its core provisions include clarifying the regulatory boundaries between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over digital assets; establishing a pathway for tokens to be de-securitized; and formally bringing digital commodity intermediaries under federal regulatory oversight. The Senate is currently negotiating several outstanding issues, including DeFi-related provisions, regulatory exemptions for non-custodial developers (the BRCA), ethics rules governing cryptocurrency holdings by government officials, and the SEC’s regulatory authority.
