U.S. “Clarity Act” Regulatory Legislation Faces Urgent Timing Pressure, with May as a Critical Window

With April nearing its end, the crypto market structure bill “Clarity Act” has made almost no progress in public view. But as the congressional summer recess approaches, this legislative window is quickly narrowing.

Notably, since last December, the market has treated May 25, Memorial Day, as the final deadline to push the legislation through before the election. This is because lawmakers will be busy campaigning after the summer recess and will have little time to handle crypto-related bills.

However, the bill has not yet cleared even the most basic legislative process. As of now, the Senate Banking Committee has not scheduled a markup hearing, which is the first prerequisite for the bill to enter the voting process.

At present, the yields on stablecoins and DeFi sales remain the core points of dispute, and no effective consensus has been reached. Therefore, even if the Senate completes the legislative process on schedule, the bill would still need to go back to the House of Representatives for a new vote, making the overall legislative process complicated and lengthy.

Meanwhile, last week, more than 100 crypto industry companies signed an open letter urging the committee to advance its review of the relevant bill as soon as possible.

In addition, the agenda items in the Senate—such as the nomination of the Federal Reserve Chair—and the House’s review of the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill will further squeeze the progress of committee hearings.

From a longer-term perspective, the core significance of pushing the “Clarity Act” legislation is to formally write the regulatory rules for the crypto industry into law, replacing administrative guidance such as “SEC Staff Statements,” which can be changed at any time.

Once the bill is enacted, it will substantially raise the threshold for the government to overturn the related rules in the future, providing the industry with a stable and predictable compliance environment.

Conversely, if the “Clarity Act” legislation ultimately stalls, the industry will remain trapped in regulatory uncertainty for the long term, and over the next few years it may continue to repeatedly battle over the same issues stemming from regulatory ambiguity.

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