A revised version of the U.S. digital asset market structure bill known as the the CLARITY Act will move to a Senate Banking Committee markup session on June 14, as debate intensifies over the absence of ethics provisions tied to cryptocurrency businesses.
On June 12, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, digital assets subcommittee chair Cynthia Lummis, and Sen. Thom Tillis released the full text of the revised legislation ahead of the committee’s markup process.
The updated bill restricts interest payments on the mere holding of stablecoins, addressing one of the key sticking points that had delayed negotiations. Under the proposal, users would not be allowed to earn interest simply for holding stablecoins, effectively preserving traditional interest-bearing deposit functions for the banking sector.
However, the bill would still permit rewards tied to user activities such as payments, transactions, and staking involving stablecoins, in line with broader market expectations.
The legislation also classifies digital assets into three categories: digital commodities, investment contract assets, and payment stablecoins.
Under the framework, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission would oversee digital commodities, while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would regulate investment contract assets. The measure aims to clarify long-disputed jurisdictional boundaries within the U.S. crypto market.
One notable provision would prevent the SEC from classifying digital assets used as the underlying assets for spot exchange-traded funds as securities. That would effectively exclude cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum from securities designation under the proposed framework.
The revised bill has also drawn criticism for including provisions unrelated to digital assets. A housing-related measure titled the “Build Now Act” was inserted into the latter section of the legislation, proposing a pilot program aimed at encouraging housing development in areas participating in the Community Development Block Grant program.
Some Democratic lawmakers have opposed the bill, arguing that it lacks ethics rules designed to prevent public officials from profiting from crypto businesses while in office.
If such provisions were added, they could potentially affect crypto ventures tied to the family of President Donald Trump, which currently operates the digital asset business World Liberty Financial.
Republican lawmakers, however, have argued that ethics oversight falls outside the jurisdiction of the Senate Banking Committee.