--- title: "The bill the crypto industry has been waiting for for ten years is just one step away from being signed." type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/286526750.md" description: "The US Senate Banking Committee has passed the CLARITY Act, a significant bill for the crypto industry, with a 15-9 vote. This legislation aims to define crypto assets clearly, separating 'writing code' from 'doing business.' It classifies assets into categories like 'digital goods' and 'investment contract assets,' and introduces a 'maturity certification' for issuers. The bill is seen as a turning point, shifting from a regulatory enforcement approach to a structured legal framework, benefiting traditional banks and providing clarity for the crypto sector." datetime: "2026-05-15T07:36:53.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/286526750.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286526750.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/286526750.md) --- # The bill the crypto industry has been waiting for for ten years is just one step away from being signed. Author:Clow,Plain Language Blockchain After the Great Crash of 1929, the United States used a set of securities laws to stifle "who can sell, what to sell, and how to disclose" for nearly a century. Those laws protected generations of retail investors, but they have also become a noose around the neck of the crypto industry over the past decade. The industry's dilemma has never been about whether the SEC or the CFTC should regulate it. The real issue is whether the US is willing to define crypto assets using a codified law, rather than a series of subpoenas. Rules are not for lawsuits; they are for running companies. Nearly a century later, this logic has been rewritten. On May 14, 2026, the US Senate Banking Committee passed the CLARITY Act with 15 votes in favor and 9 against. Two Democrats, Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks, crossed party lines and voted in favor. On the same day, the probability of the bill passing on the Polymarket forecasting market jumped to 68%. This bill essentially does two things: **Separate "writing code" from "doing business," and separate "custody for others" from "owning it."** ## Ten months of negotiations yielded these two defecting votes The 15-9 vote was not a smooth one. Behind it lies more than ten months of intensive negotiations and repeated compromises addressing concerns from the banking industry and law enforcement. More than 100 amendments were submitted during the committee's review. All 13 Republican commissioners voted in favor, while only two Democrats stepped forward. The opposition was led by Elizabeth Warren. Her ruling was strong: "This bill, written by the crypto industry itself, would weaken securities laws that have protected investors since 1929, opening the door to fraud." Alsobrooks countered directly: "A digital revolution is underway, and the government's responsibility is to set the 'rules of the road,' protecting small businesses and young people, not turning a blind eye." These two represented two completely different worldviews, and neither convinced the other. Warren wanted to also address the Tornado Cash coin mixer issue, granting the Treasury greater sanctioning power, but the Republicans blocked this on procedural grounds. Van Hollen, targeting World Liberty Financial, owned by the Trump family, proposed an amendment banning senior officials and their families from participating in digital asset issuance, which failed in a 11-13 partisan vote. These embarrassing moments were not covered up by any partisan legislation. The toughest battle was whether stablecoins could pay interest. Banking lobbying groups, the American Bankers Association and the Banking Policy Institute, warned that this would trigger a massive "deposit outflow." The deadlock was finally broken by a compromise between Tillis and Alsobrooks, enshrined in Section 404: prohibiting the payment of returns economically or functionally equivalent to bank deposit interest, but allowing "activity rewards" for genuine use such as payments, transfers, and transactions. Interestingly, the White House Council of Economic Advisers' own research states that even a complete interest rate ban would only boost bank lending by 0.02%. After all that arguing, the real issue is the power of discourse, not that decimal point. How does a law divide crypto assets into four pieces? To understand why this bill is a watershed moment, we need to see how it divides the pie. The core is classification. Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are already decentralized and functional, are considered "digital goods" and fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the CFTC. Early assets, obtained through the efforts of specific teams and meeting the Howey Test, were considered "investment contract assets" and belonged to the SEC. The Senate version also innovated with "collateral assets," distributed with securities sales but without equity or debt claims, requiring disclosure under Section 4B of the Securities Act of 1933, rather than full securities registration. Permitted stablecoin payments were handled by banking regulators. More importantly, there's a "maturity certification" ladder. Issuers or decentralized governance systems can demonstrate to the SEC that the network is mature and no longer controlled by a single entity, allowing assets to "graduate" from securities status as digital goods and be listed and traded on more platforms. This eliminates the need for litigation to determine the nature of assets, retroactive application, and leaving developers guessing about the true nature of their creations. The real gift of this bill is for these people. Before this law, the crypto industry lived in a world of "enforcement and regulation": do it first, get sued, and then learn the rules. Now the order is reversed. The most direct beneficiaries are traditional banks. According to multiple reports, the bill amends banking laws and is considered to effectively end the SEC's SAB 121 notice. Previously, this notice forced banks to record digital assets held in custody by clients as liabilities, resulting in exorbitant custody costs. With this constraint loosened, institutions like BNY Mellon and State Street can provide custody at extremely low capital costs, opening the final gate for institutional entry. Developers have gained a safe haven. The bill separates "software development" from "financial operations," explicitly excluding non-custodial developers, node operators, and validators from financial intermediaries. As long as the code doesn't directly access user assets, they don't need to comply with the regulations for securities brokers. There's also a "crypto regulation" exemption, allowing blockchain startups to raise up to $50 million within 12 months, exempting them from cumbersome securities registration. In summary, the committee's passage is a milestone, not the end. The Banking Committee's version needs to be merged with the Agriculture Committee's version first, and then compared with H.R. 3633, which the House passed in July 2025. The full vote in June requires 60 votes, meaning approximately seven more Democrats need to be lobbied. July 4th, Independence Day, is the White House's hard deadline; missing it could delay until 2027. However, this issue has long since transcended the division of territory between two regulatory agencies. Supporters directly link crypto regulation to US-China competition and the dollar's dominance; this national security rhetoric has led some initially skeptical Democrats to acquiesce. White House digital asset advisor Patrick Witt confirmed that the administration has set a clear goal of completing legislation by July 4th. A HarrisX poll shows that 70% of registered voters believe the US should have passed crypto legislation long ago, and 52% explicitly support the bill. Polymarket's 68% represents a vote of confidence from institutional and professional investors with their hard-earned money. Ultimately, this bill doesn't claim to be disruptive. It simply separates code from commerce, custody from self-custody, and restores the operational space the industry has been seeking for a decade. For investors, the biggest change is that the unpredictable administrative risk has been replaced by codified law. The developer who once didn't know whether their tokens were securities now at least knows which way to go. 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