The CLARITY Act passed Senate Banking Committee on Thursday by a 15-9 bipartisan vote. The bill addresses what GENIUS left untouched: token classification, market supervision, and the line between SEC and CFTC jurisdiction. Together, the two laws would form the United States’ first complete digital asset regulatory framework. The floor vote is expected in June or July, with the White House targeting July 4. Polymarket pricing on 2026 passage moved from 46% to 68% in the past two weeks.
Three provisions matter for institutional allocators. First, a statutory line between SEC jurisdiction (token sales, securities) and CFTC jurisdiction (secondary trading, commodities) replaces five years of regulation-by-enforcement with a compliance roadmap. Second, passive stablecoin yield on idle balances is prohibited, but activity-based rewards tied to transactions and platform use (similar to credit card points) are explicitly permitted. This was the most contested provision in the bill, with banks fearing that yield-bearing stablecoins would pull deposits out of the banking system at scale. Third, the first federal protection for developers of open source blockchain code, who until now risked being prosecuted as unlicensed money transmitters for code they wrote but did not operate. The Department of Justice had argued that writing the software was equivalent to running a bank, a position that chilled US-based development for years.
When we covered CLARITY in January, the Senate had just postponed the markup. Thursday’s vote signals to the Senate floor that Democrats are coming along, which is the dynamic that determines whether the bill reaches the 60 votes it needs. The remaining variable is an ethics package on officials profiting from crypto, which Democrats have flagged as a precondition for floor support. If that closes, the bill reaches the President’s desk, and the 18-month rule-making clock starts.
This week’s market
- BGCI Index -0.03%
- Bitcoin 0.47%
- Ethereum -1.38%
- Solana 2.78%
All figures are week-to-date as of today 15:00 CET
Theta Blockchain Ventures content
- Ruud Smets in The Alternative Investor
Trust is one of the most expensive inputs in economic life, but blockchains change this arithmetic (read the full article)
Blockchain news
- CLARITY Act clears U.S. Senate Banking Committee, advances to full Senate (learn more)
- JPMorgan files to launch second tokenized money market fund on Ethereum (learn more)
- BlackRock, Janus Henderson tokenized funds get instant redemptions with new $1 billion facility (learn more)
- Moody’s awards top rating to Fidelity and BlackRock’s tokenized money market funds (learn more)
- DTCC picks Chainlink as data layer for 24/7 tokenized collateral platform (learn more)
- Charles Schwab begins US rollout of spot crypto trading for retail customers (learn more)
- Bank of England ready to water down ‘overly conservative’ stablecoin proposals (learn more)
- CFTC issues blanket no-action letter on prediction markets, relieving swap data reporting duties (learn more)
Relevant financial update
- Digital Asset*, the firm behind the institutional blockchain Canton Network, is raising $300 million in a funding round led by a16z crypto, valuing the company at $2 billion
- Arc*, a blockchain developed by Circle for stablecoin-based finance, has raised $222mln in a Private Token Sale led by a16z crypto with investments from BlackRock, General Catalyst, Haun Ventures, SBI Holdings, Apollo Global Management, and 7 others
- Ripple*, a decentralized payments platform, has secured a $200mln debt facility from Neuberger Berman
- Elliptic*, a blockchain analytics platform, has raised $120mln in a Series D round led by One Peak Partners with investments from J.P. Morgan, Nasdaq Ventures, and 4 others at a $670mln valuation
Gemini, a centralized exchange, has received a $100mln post-IPO investment from Winklevoss Capital
- Coincheck, a centralized exchange, has received a $65mln strategic investment from KDDI CORPORATION
- Fasset, a crypto exchange, has raised $51mln in a Series B round with investments from SBI Holdings, Investcorp, and Arz Portföy
- Augustus, a neobank platform, has raised $40mln in a funding round with investments from Valar Ventures and Creandum
- Stitch, a platform that unifies the ledgers, primitives, and workflows needed to build and run financial products, has raised $25mln in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz with investments from 4 others
- Osero*, a decentralized yield services platform, has raised $13.5mln in a Private Token Sale led by Sky Protocol with investments from Plasma, and 5 others
- Turnkey*, a web wallet platform, has received a $12.5mln strategic investment from Galaxy Ventures, Circle Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and 4 others
*Underlying TBV portfolio position | Prices as per 15/05
Interesting things to read and listen to
- What builders need to know about the CLARITY Act, what it is and why it matters, from a16z crypto (read here)