The U.S. CLARITY Act, a bill on crypto market structure, has entered a phase of possible bipartisan passage after a Senate Banking Committee revision and the setting of a vote schedule.

On May 13, local time, blockchain outlet Cryptopolitan reported that Alex Thorn (알렉스 손), head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, said the bill could enter a decisive stage after a long delay.

Attention is focused on newly added provisions in the revision and the vote strategy. In a recent post on X, formerly Twitter, Thorn pointed to the addition of the Build Now Act to Section 904. The provision is a housing policy that changes how the federal government allocates community development grants. It was introduced jointly by Republican Senator John Kennedy and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Thorn assessed the inclusion as a political choice aimed at locking in Kennedy’s support. "Including Build Now could be a way to solidify Kennedy’s support," he said, adding that Warren’s role as a co-sponsor gives the CLARITY Act a measure of bipartisan weight. He drew a line, however, saying Warren is unlikely to cast a yes vote based on this provision alone.

The Build Now Act passed the full Senate in October 2025 and March 2026, but fell out in the House of Representatives and has awaited separate action. By attaching it again to the CLARITY Act, it effectively gets another legislative chance. Thorn said if Kennedy votes against it, his housing bill could also be stalled.

The new 309-page revision also reflects contentious issues that have pitted the crypto industry against the banking sector. It bans exchanges from paying interest, like deposit interest, in return for users holding stablecoins. It allows rewards tied to actual activity on a platform, such as wallet use, payments, liquidity provision, staking and participation in loyalty programmes.

Banks opposed the compromise on May 9, saying all yield-type payments should be banned outright. Coinbase, the White House and the Council of Economic Advisers publicly expressed support. An assessment followed that banks’ argument, citing concerns about deposit outflows, had weakened.

The scope of developer liability also became clearer. The new bill would prevent software developers from being classified as money transmitters simply for writing code. There had been concerns that developers who built decentralised finance tools could face criminal liability, but the revision would exempt them unless they intentionally helped move funds while knowing they were criminal proceeds.

It also spelled out guardrails for validators, node operators, oracle providers and sequencers. The revision said they would not be subject to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registration or obligations under banking law when performing their core work. It limited tokenisation to the securities sector and granted the SEC sole authority to supervise the related framework.

It also revised the rights of users and counterparties if an exchange goes bankrupt. Section 702 protects counterparties from being excluded from the process of recovering collateral they deposited even if a trading platform files for bankruptcy. It is seen as a step to reduce legal uncertainty when the failure of a crypto exchange spreads across the broader market.

In the Senate, comments continued that raised expectations of passage. Senator Cynthia Lummis said of the revision released on May 12, "We are one step closer to passage." Committee Chairman Tim Scott said the bill "provides the certainty, safeguards and accountability that Americans deserve." Senator Thom Tillis also called it a "bipartisan compromise" and said he hoped it could be sent to President Donald Trump soon.

Still, the bill’s path is expected to be decided by a scheduled vote on Thursday. The revision strengthened its bipartisan appearance, but conflicts of interest remain over stablecoin reward regulation and the scope of oversight related to cryptocurrencies. The vote outcome is likely to be a watershed for gauging the pace of U.S. crypto market structure legislation.