Lummis Warns CLARITY Act Delay Pushes Crypto Rules to 2030

Senate Majority Leader John Thune confirmed the chamber will not vote on the CLARITY Act until September, ending Senator Cynthia Lummis's push for a pre-recess floor vote. The Wyoming Republican had pressed senators to stay in Washington over the weekend to lock in a vote before the August recess. Thune pulled that timeline.

The bill sits in legislative limbo. The Senate Banking Committee approved it 15-9 on May 14 with bipartisan support, and a floor vote keeps sliding. For crypto exchanges trying to plan around clear rules, the uncertainty stretches on.

Its scope reaches beyond a tweak to existing rules. The bill would build a federal framework for digital asset markets, including how assets are classified and which agency oversees them. One concrete provision would force exchanges to hold customer cash and crypto separate from company assets. The provision responds to the Celsius bankruptcy, where customers ended up as unsecured creditors rather than owners of their funds.

Lummis dropped a revised version July 22 that runs past 300 pages. The changes came out of negotiations between the Senate Banking and Agriculture committees, with Democrats pushing for additions that include Commodity Futures Trading Commission provisions and ethics rules for senior federal officials.

Failure to pass soon carries a specific cost, in Lummis's telling. She has said the United States probably will not have federal market-structure standards for digital assets until nearly 2030. Four more years without clear rules means another four years of exchanges operating in legal gray zones and some companies setting up shop elsewhere.