The Clarity Act, a U.S. bill on digital asset market structure, has stalled ahead of the Senate amid a standoff over whether stablecoins should be barred from paying interest. As of April 2, it had not passed a Senate Banking Committee markup.

On April 2, blockchain outlet CoinPost reported the Clarity Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on July 17, 2025 by 294 to 134. Senate deliberation and enactment were expected, but the Senate schedule was delayed.

The bill split the digital asset oversight framework by agency. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission would oversee spot markets for digital commodities, while the Securities and Exchange Commission would retain supervisory authority over investment contract assets. Under this structure, bitcoin is discussed as likely to be classified as a commodity and many altcoins as securities.

The key issue blocking Senate discussion is stablecoin interest payments. The current direction of adjustments is reported to be to block interest payments based on simple holdings, while allowing reward programs tied to transactional activity such as payments and remittances. The already passed Genius Act explicitly banned stablecoin issuers from paying interest.

The Senate Banking Committee had planned a markup in January but abruptly postponed it. This was described as coming after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (브라이언 암스트롱) publicly said he could not support the current provisions, which fuelled unrest within the Republican Party as well. With a company seen as a core pillar of industry lobbying publicly pushing back, interpretations followed that the committee became more cautious about pressing ahead.

Then on March 20, Republican Senator Thom Tillis (톰 틸리스) and Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks (앤절라 올소브룩스) announced a broad agreement to ban interest payments based on holdings while allowing activity-linked rewards. Industry officials, however, raised concerns on March 23 during a closed review process that wording related to stablecoin rewards was too narrow and unclear.

There are also many issues still unresolved. Democrats see the DeFi provisions as failing to sufficiently address risks of illicit funds flowing in, including money laundering and sanctions evasion. As conflicts-of-interest controversy emerged over the issuance of memecoins by U.S. President Donald Trump's family and involvement in DeFi projects, calls also continued to add ethics rules banning public officials from profiting from cryptocurrency businesses in a personal capacity.

Political variables have also been added. On March 26, it was confirmed that David Sacks (데이비드 색스), the presidential adviser for cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, would finish his term, and it was announced there was no successor nomination. Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal (폴 그루월) said on Fox Business on April 1 that an agreement on the stablecoin interest issue was possible within 48 hours, but even if a markup is held in late April, steps remain including securing 60 votes in the full Senate, integrating the Agriculture Committee version, reconciling it with the House version and the presidential signature process. The deadline for a full Senate vote is also limited to before August 2026.

Ultimately, the Clarity Act is becoming a test case for gauging how far the United States will absorb financial innovation into the institutional system, beyond "regulatory reorganisation".