finance
Coinbase CEO Says Crypto Market Structure Bill Closer Than Ever to Passage
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong urged the Senate to pass the Clarity Act one day before the Senate Banking Committee vote on the legislation. The bill would establish permanent non-security status for certain digital assets, protect staking activities and impose restrictions on stablecoins.
May 13, 11:54 AM·3m read5 sources
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the crypto market structure bill known as the Clarity Act is closer than ever to passage and will benefit the American people by making the U.S. financial system faster, cheaper and more accessible. Armstrong posted a video from Capitol Hill on Wednesday urging lawmakers to advance the legislation 24 hours before the Senate Banking Committee was scheduled to hold its first full committee vote on the bill.
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He described the measure as strong and called on the panel to mark it up. The Senate Banking Committee vote is set for May 14. If approved, the bill would then be merged with a parallel version that has already cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee.
It would still require 60 votes to clear the full Senate and additional approval from the House, which passed a similar measure last year. The legislation would grant permanent non-security status for spot ETP-approved tokens such as Bitcoin. It would also provide full protection for staking activities and ban interest on payment stablecoins in a provision that favors traditional banks.
Dozens of amendments have been filed ahead of the committee hearing as the bill approaches a markup session. Most of the proposed changes, particularly those from Democrats critical of the legislation, are not expected to be incorporated into the final version that advances from committee.
The amendments seek to revise or remove significant portions of the negotiated text. Among them are proposals to further restrict stablecoin yields in response to concerns from banking trade groups, establish government ethics rules on digital asset ownership by officials, create safe harbors for software developers and impose a ban on central bank digital currencies issued by the Federal Reserve.
