On 8 August 2026, Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act), scheduling the procedural vote for 15 September 2026. The Senate adjourned its pre-recess session without bringing the bill to a final floor vote despite bipartisan support and sustained industry lobbying.
H.R. 3633 passed the House of Representatives on 17 July 2025 by a 294-134 vote. The bill allocates digital asset jurisdiction between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission based on whether an asset qualifies as a commodity or a security under the bill's classification criteria. It establishes registration requirements for digital commodity exchanges, digital commodity brokers, digital asset trading systems, and decentralised commodity platforms, together with disclosure, anti-manipulation, and custody standards. Senate passage also requires agreement on ethics and conflict-of-interest provisions aimed at preventing senior executive-branch officials from holding or profiting from digital assets while in office.
Enactment would require digital commodity exchanges, digital commodity brokers, DeFi protocol operators, and stablecoin issuers to register with the relevant regulator and comply with defined operational, disclosure, and custody standards. Businesses operating under no-action relief or regulatory uncertainty would face defined compliance deadlines following signature into law. Service providers to digital asset markets, including custodians, payment processors, and transfer agents, would also face new registration or reporting obligations depending on the services provided.
The principal unresolved issues are the scope of ethics restrictions on executive-branch officials with digital asset holdings, anti-money laundering obligations for decentralised finance protocols, and the precise jurisdictional boundary between the SEC and CFTC for hybrid instruments. Galaxy Research estimates the probability of enactment before the end of 2026 at 30 percent. Polymarket traders priced the probability near 17 percent as of 10 August 2026, down from approximately 65 percent earlier in the year.
Licentium advises digital asset exchanges, token issuers, DeFi protocol operators, and trading platforms on US and multi-jurisdictional regulatory compliance. Work we undertake includes digital asset classification analysis, exchange registration and licensing, CFTC and SEC regulatory strategy, DeFi protocol compliance structuring, stablecoin issuer regulatory advisory, and legislative monitoring for digital asset markets.
Source: H.R.3633, 119th Congress (2025-2026): Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, Congress.gov