Author: Paul Veradittakit, Managing Partner, Pantera Capital; Translator: Shaw, Jinse Finance
On May 14, 2026, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee completed a historic bipartisan vote, ultimately passing the "Clarity Act on the Digital Asset Markets of 2025" (hereinafter referred to as the "CLARITY Act") with 15 votes in favor and 9 against. All Republican members of the committee, along with two Democratic members—Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego and Maryland Senator Angela Albrooks—voted in favor. The bill, which passed the House of Representatives in July 2025 with a high vote of 294 to 134, is now one step closer to a formal vote in the full Senate. Significance of the Event: In our view, this is the most comprehensive federal regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States to date. The bill clearly defines the regulatory jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), establishes practical decentralized standards to determine whether online tokens fall under the category of securities, provides substantial legal protection for developers and decentralized financial infrastructure, and establishes balanced and reasonable regulatory rules for intermediaries, stablecoins, and user asset security. After months of multi-party consultations on core issues such as stablecoin returns, illegal financial risks, and developer rights protection, the 309-page revised bill released on May 12 fully reflects the practical policy compromises and balance of interests between the two parties in the United States. The core pillars of the CLARITY Act: This 309-page revised bill in May resolves most of the controversial issues that hindered the progress of the draft in January. The bill is divided into nine chapters, thoroughly clarifying the long-standing regulatory ambiguities in the industry: Chapter 1: Jurisdiction Division between the SEC and CFTC and Definition of Token Attributes. Building upon the existing concept of "joint control," the bill establishes standards for determining collaborative control, thereby defining when online tokens are no longer considered securities. The bill sets a 49% beneficial ownership threshold, coupled with decentralized governance exemptions, to help mature blockchain projects complete their attribute transformation and formally classify them as commodity assets. The issuers of ancillary assets are subject to exclusive information disclosure rules, and secondary market trading of tokens with commodity attributes is also explicitly included in the regulatory scope of insider trading and fiduciary duty regulations. For tokenization platforms like Ondo, which build channels between US Treasury bonds and on-chain markets, the clear regulatory boundary between securities and digital commodities eliminates the legal uncertainties that have long hindered traditional institutions from entering the market. Part Three: Decentralized Finance and Decentralized Innovation Regulation The bill clearly distinguishes between decentralized ledger finance trading protocols and centralized trading platforms through objective exclusion criteria. Network verification nodes, transaction sorting nodes, oracle service providers, node operators, and even the emergency governance committee are all exempted from certain compliance obligations. This rule, while protecting the innovation space of non-custodial financial business models, still requires centralized platforms to strictly comply with the Bank Secrecy Law and anti-money laundering regulatory requirements. Part Six: Developer Rights Protection The bill retains and further improves the relevant content of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. Software developers who do not have control over projects can enjoy exemptions from currency transfer service provider qualifications, and are also exempt from some criminal legal liabilities related to fund transfers (except in a few cases such as knowingly assisting illegal and criminal activities); in addition, legal exemption clauses related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been added, comprehensively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of developers. Part Four: Stablecoin Rules and Digital Innovation in the Banking Industry Based on the compromise reached by Tillis-Albrooks, the bill explicitly prohibits stablecoin issuers from issuing balance returns that are equivalent to bank deposit interest in terms of economic attributes and actual function. It also clearly defines the scope of compliance exemptions: reasonable incentive returns generated based on actual business activities (staking mining, liquidity supply, on-chain governance dividends, etc.), regardless of whether they are calculated based on the size of the holding, the holding period, or the participation period, are not subject to the prohibition. The bill further clarifies the compliance authority of commercial banks in conducting digital asset-related businesses and issues joint and unified regulatory rules regarding capital adequacy ratios, margin mechanisms, and net settlement rules. The bill includes comprehensive and robust regulatory safeguards. It introduces stringent regulations for illegal financial activities, fully aligning with the regulatory standards of the Bank Secrecy Law, and plans to conduct a special investigation into coin mixing services. Part Seven adds bankruptcy remote safe harbor rules, extending bankruptcy legal protection to various digital commodity transactions, clearing institutional obstacles for the large-scale development of institutional prime brokerage and clearing markets. For institutional custody service providers like Bitgod and Anchorage, which have been deeply involved in the industry for over a decade and have built compliant custody, asset lending, and on-chain clearing infrastructure, this regulatory framework provides a solid legal foundation for the industry's next stage of large-scale development. The entire bill achieves a balance across multiple parties: while ensuring the protection of user rights and maintaining the bottom line of national financial security, it reserves ample room for compliant and controllable industry innovation.
Follow-up Process
While the Senate Banking Committee's completion of the CLARITY Act's review is a significant milestone, the bill has not yet been formally enacted. The bill still needs to pass a full Senate vote (expected to reach the 60-vote threshold), complete textual coordination with the Senate Agriculture Committee version, and finally obtain final approval from the House of Representatives before it can be sent to the President for signature.
Some Democratic senators, including Senator Gallego, have stated that the progress of further refinement of the ethical oversight guidelines for public officials may influence their stance on the full Senate vote. However, the White House currently firmly supports the bill, and the industry as a whole is making strong progress. Analysts believe that the bill has a feasible path to be enacted this year.
Profound Impact on the Industry
For project developers, investment institutions, and traditional financial institutions, the CLARITY Act provides the regulatory certainty that the industry has long called for.
It effectively reduces the enforcement and regulatory risks faced by decentralized protocols, relying on the legal safe harbor clause and clear digital goods classification to open up channels for institutional funds to enter the market, helping the United States establish a leading position in the global compliant crypto innovation field. The bill, on the one hand, establishes feasible regulatory rules for banks and various financial intermediaries, and on the other hand, provides compliance protection for pure decentralized finance (DeFi) business models and developer activities. While adhering to the permissionless and free core of blockchain, it lays a solid institutional foundation for the industry to enter the mainstream and popularization stage. Pantera Capital has always held the view that a scientific, stable, and predictable regulatory system can accelerate capital accumulation and technological iteration. The committee's voting results fully confirm that the US political regulatory approach has finally caught up with the pace of market and industry technology development. We will continue to closely follow all subsequent developments of the bill; the next few months may be a crucial period in the development of crypto industry regulation. Pantera Capital's Perspective: Pantera Capital has long maintained its core belief that a stable and continuous inflow of US capital into the digital asset sector necessitates the establishment of long-term, robust domestic regulatory rules. The GENIUS Act established a regulatory framework for stablecoins, while the CLARITY Act built a comprehensive regulatory system for the digital asset market. These two complement each other, serving as the pre-regulatory foundation for the implementation of digital asset applications across numerous sectors over the next decade, covering tokenized asset tracks such as Ondo and BUIDL, digital commodity prime brokerage and custody services tracks such as Bitpie and Anchorage, and the integration of on-chain financial infrastructure with the traditional financial system. As Senator Al Brooks stated during the bill's deliberations: This digital revolution is inevitable; whether we proactively plan for it or not, it will eventually arrive. Now, the US political establishment has finally recognized that rather than allowing disorderly development, it is better to establish rules to guide the trend. Today's victory is by no means the end. To ultimately pass the bill, the entire industry still needs to work together and cooperate.
Weatherly
Anais
Catherine
Kikyo