Senate Banking Committee Advances Digital Asset Market Clarity Act

U.S. Senate Banking Committee held a markup hearing on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on May 14, 2026, to advance the crypto market structure bill known as the Clarity Act to its next stage. The hearing opened with a partisan start as Republicans and Democrats had not yet reached common ground despite months of negotiations.

Senator Tim Scott, the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, acknowledged the divide. "We will disagree on this today, but I hope that what we end up with is a legislative product that is good now and gets another bite at the apple as it heads to the floor," Scott said. He added, "This is not over, and I hope that no one thinks that this is over.

This process has been transparent. " Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming who leads the Senate Banking Committee's digital assets subcommittee, said the parties have only about 1% of the bill remaining to work out to reach bipartisan support. "This is by far the hardest piece of legislation I have ever worked on," Lummis stated.

Negotiators were still working on the bill's treatment of decentralized finance (DeFi) and a government-ethics provision to keep senior officials out of the crypto industry as of May 14, 2026, CoinDesk reported. If the bill passes along party lines, the expected vote is 13-11. The bill, if advanced, will merge with a similar bill that already passed the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Democrats objected to many amendments that were scrapped on procedural grounds before the hearing began. The hearing voted down most Democratic amendments along partisan lines on May 14, 2026. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, sharply criticized the draft.

"This bill is just not ready for prime time," Warren said. " An amendment regarding the extension of government protections involving the practice of calculating margin across portfolios passed on May 14, 2026. While the markup reflected deep divisions, Lummis and Scott both signaled that work on the remaining differences would continue even as the measure moves forward.