Senate Inches Closer to Passing Landmark US Crypto Law

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act cleared its biggest legislative hurdle to date on Thursday, passing the Senate Banking Committee in a bipartisan 15-9 vote after a 2.5-hour markup that grew contentious before resolving in the crypto industry's favour. All 13 Republican committee members voted yes, joined by Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland. The bill now heads to the full Senate floor.

Two Democrats Crossed Over and Several More Might Follow

The 15-9 result was tighter than the surface number suggests but more positive than crypto industry advocates had been predicting earlier in the week. The committee had cancelled a planned January markup after a similar attempt collapsed under partisan division, and Thursday's vote was the first formal Senate committee action on US crypto market structure legislation in over four months.

The two Democrats who voted yes both framed their support as conditional rather than final. Gallego said his floor vote will depend on whether ethics language he supports gets added to the merged Senate bill. Alsobrooks described her committee vote as "a vote to keep working, not a vote for passage on the floor." The more strategically important signal came from Democrats who voted no but indicated they would consider supporting the bill on the floor with the right amendments. Senator Mark Warner, who has been one of the most active Democrats negotiating with Republicans on the bill, said he wanted to move from "crypto hell" to "crypto heaven" and committed to continued work on the legislation.

The bill now needs 60 votes on the Senate floor to overcome a filibuster. Assuming all 53 Republicans vote yes, seven Democratic votes will be required to clear the threshold. With Gallego and Alsobrooks already inclined to support and Warner, Cortez Masto and Warnock open to it, the path to passage exists but is not yet locked in.

The Van Hollen Amendment Failed and That Is the Real Problem

The biggest single point of friction during Thursday's session was the ethics amendment proposed by Senator Chris Van Hollen, which would have barred the President, Vice President, members of Congress, federal officials and their families from holding crypto business interests during their time in office. The amendment failed 11-13 along party lines, with Republicans opposing on the grounds that it would single out President Trump rather than apply universally to federal officials.

The Van Hollen failure explains why Democratic opposition to the broader bill held up despite the compromises Republicans had built into it. Senator Raphael Warnock tied his no vote to ethics concerns, calling Trump's digital asset business ties "pure corruption." Senator Elizabeth Warren, the committee's ranking Democrat, argued the bill "declares open season on defrauding American consumers who use crypto" and accused Republicans of advancing a framework that helps "the President's crypto grift."

A CoinDesk survey released in the same week found that 73% of Americans believe senior government officials should not have business ties to the crypto industry, which gives the ethics question political traction independent of the partisan dynamic in the committee. The combined effect is that any final Senate floor agreement will likely need to include some version of ethics language to attract the seven Democratic votes required for passage.

The Path to a July 4 Signing Is Real but Narrow

The Banking Committee version of the Clarity Act will now need to be merged with the parallel bill that cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this year. That reconciliation work is expected to take several weeks, with Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone predicting that "the next three weeks on both committees are going to be insanity" as Agriculture-side compromises get negotiated. The White House has targeted a 4 July signing date for the legislation, although Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has suggested early August is more realistic.

The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill last year on a 294-134 vote, with significant bipartisan support. That history suggests the bill could clear the House without major issue if it gets through the Senate, although House Republicans have a recent track record of attempting to attach central bank digital currency bans to unrelated legislation, which could complicate the path.

Markets reacted positively to the committee vote. Bitcoin rallied to roughly $82,000 during the session, breaking through the resistance level that has held it for most of May. Coinbase stock gained sharply, with Circle, Galaxy Digital and Strategy also trading higher as investors priced in the bill's momentum. XRP broke through $1.50 on the news, up roughly 7% on the week.

The Clarity Act is not law yet, and the path from committee vote to Presidential signature includes Senate floor passage, House reconciliation, and a presidential signing window that the political calendar keeps narrowing. But Thursday's vote is the most consequential Senate action on US crypto legislation in over a decade. The remaining question is whether the ethics provision can be negotiated in a way both parties accept, because without it, the 60-vote math on the Senate floor falls apart.