Senate Crypto Bill Faces Over 100 Amendments Ahead of Thursday Markup

Bitcoin Magazine

Senate Crypto Bill Faces Over 100 Amendments Ahead of Thursday Markup

Senate Banking Committee members have filed more than 100 proposed amendments to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, according to Politico reporting. The panel is set to convene on Thursday for a long-awaited markup vote that crypto and industry leaders say could reshape digital asset regulation in the United States.

The committee scheduled its executive session for 10:30 a.m. on May 14 at Room 538 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., where lawmakers will debate the amendments and vote on whether to send the bill to the full Senate floor. 

The flood of filings follows the release of an updated 309-page draft of the bill earlier this week, expanded from the 278-page version proposed in January.

Senator Elizabeth Warren leads the opposition push, submitting more than 40 amendments alone, with the bulk of proposed changes coming from Democratic members of the Banking Committee. 

The wave of filings mirrors the January markup session, which drew 137 amendments before that session was cancelled, signaling that resistance to the bill remains strong even as its supporters push for a final vote.

At the center of the dispute is how the bill handles stablecoin yield products — crypto that offer returns to holders. Banking groups argue such crypto products threaten traditional deposit bases; crypto firms counter that reward programs support liquidity and customer activity without functioning as bank deposits.

The American Bankers Association has sent more than 8,000 letters to Senate offices since last Friday, targeting the stablecoin yield compromise brokered by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks. That compromise, reached after months of negotiations, prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying interest or yield to users who hold tokens passively, while preserving exceptions for rewards tied to genuine platform transactions and payment activity.

Senators Jack Reed and Tina Smith filed amendments to tighten those standards further, targeting products that deliver returns in ways that resemble traditional interest-bearing deposit accounts. 

The banking lobby maintains the existing compromise language still leaves room for stablecoin platforms to replicate high-yield savings products without meeting bank-level regulatory requirements.

Senate ethics provisions and developer protections

Senator Chris Van Hollen introduced a proposal that would prohibit senior government officials and their families from owning or promoting crypto-related businesses — a demand Democrats say is non-negotiable given President Trump’s close ties to the crypto industry. 

Republican sponsors have resisted the provision, with some warning that ethics riders could fracture the coalition needed for the bill to advance.

A recent draft of the bill already included language shielding noncustodial developers from being classified as money transmitting businesses, with that protection extended retroactively to cover past conduct.

The broader stakes for the crypto industry

The CLARITY Act, formally H.R. 3633, passed the House on July 17, 2025, by a 294–134 bipartisan vote before stalling in the Senate through two cancelled markup sessions and protracted stablecoin negotiations.

At its core, the bill would draw a clear jurisdictional line between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, ending years of enforcement-based policymaking that left crypto firms operating under legal ambiguity.

Prediction markets have priced the odds of the bill becoming law in 2026 roughly at 60%, the highest level in months, with the White House setting a July 4 target for a presidential signature.

Committee Chairman Tim Scott had originally targeted a Senate floor vote for September 2025, then pushed that deadline to end-of-year, and most recently said he hoped to reach a full Senate vote by June or July 2026. 

Thursday’s markup is the first formal committee vote on the bill in the Senate, and its outcome will determine whether that timeline is still within reach.

This post Senate Crypto Bill Faces Over 100 Amendments Ahead of Thursday Markup first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.