The CLARITY Act, explained.

If you have ever tried to figure out which federal agency is in charge of crypto in the United States, the honest answer until now has been: all of them, sort of, depending on what you ask. The CLARITY Act is Congress’s attempt to finally answer the question.

The bill’s full name is the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The House passed its version (H.R. 3633) almost a year ago. The Senate is now writing its own version, and the two will eventually have to be reconciled.

“Passed the House” is not the same as “became law.” This is the stage where most major legislation lives the longest.

Right now, the U.S. has two main markets regulators with claims on crypto. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) regulates anything that looks like a stock or investment contract. The CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) regulates commodities like wheat, oil, and increasingly, Bitcoin futures.

For years, the two agencies have fought over which one is in charge of which token. The result has been enforcement actions, lawsuits, and very few clear rules. The CLARITY Act tries to settle the jurisdictional fight by writing the answer into law.

• Most digital assets that run on a sufficiently decentralized blockchain are treated as digital commodities under the CFTC.
• Tokens that still function as investment contracts stay with the SEC.
• Crypto exchanges, brokers, and dealers get a registration framework with the CFTC.
• A new exemption (sometimes called Regulation Crypto) lets companies raise money from retail investors without full public-company-style securities disclosure.
• It includes a separate Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, blocking the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail central bank digital currency.

The House passed the CLARITY Act on July 17, 2025. It was one of the more bipartisan major bills of the year.

All 216 voting Republicans supported the bill. 78 Democrats crossed over to vote yes. 134 Democrats voted no.

The bill then went to the Senate, where it was read twice and referred to the Banking Committee. That is where it has lived ever since.

The Senate did not just take up the House bill. It started writing its own version. The Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), released its text in early May 2026 and held a markup on May 14.

Bipartisan, but only barely. Every committee Republican voted yes. A handful of Democrats, including Sens. Ruben Gallego (AZ) and Angela Alsobrooks (MD), joined them.

Clearing committee is one step. Three more still have to happen before any version reaches the president’s desk:

• The Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the CFTC, has to weigh in on its own piece of the bill.
• The Banking and Agriculture drafts have to be reconciled into one Senate version.
• That combined Senate version has to clear the full Senate floor, then be reconciled with the House-passed H.R. 3633.

Even after both committees finish, the bill still has to survive the Senate’s 60-vote cloture threshold. A simple majority passes a bill. But 60 votes are usually needed just to end debate and get to that final vote.

• Senate Agriculture Committee markup of the CFTC-side provisions.
• A single reconciled Senate bill emerges.
• A Senate floor vote, which almost certainly means a cloture fight first.
• A conference (or informal negotiation) to merge the Senate bill with the House-passed H.R. 3633.
• A final identical vote in both chambers, then the president signs.

One chamber-passed bill is a milestone. Two chamber-passed bills are a deal. Only one of them becomes law.

If you want to watch the CLARITY Act move (the committee votes, the cloture votes, the final passage votes, the crossovers in each), that is exactly what PollBrief is built for.