House Votes to Pass CLARITY Act After Drama Threatened to Derail Crypto Market Structure Bill

Passage of the procedural measure allowed the House to proceed with final floor votes on the CLARITY Act establishing a broad regulatory structure for digital assets, and the Senate-passed GENIUS Act creating rules for the issuance and trading of stablecoins. The CLARITY Act was approved at press time Thursday afternoon, and a vote on the GENIUS Act was scheduled for later in the day or Friday.

The drama began Tuesday, when a group of 13 Republicans joined with all the Democrats to block passage of the procedural motion to allow the bills to come to the floor for a final vote. The Republican hardliners were pushing to fold a separate bill banning the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) into the CLARITY Act. After a late-night meeting in the Oval Office with President Trump, the holdouts agreed to drop their demand in exchange for a promise to add language banning CBDCs to the market structure bill.

That bargain quickly unraveled on Wednesday, however, when the Republican leaders of the Financial Services and Agriculture committees who had shepherded the CLARITY Act to the floor objected to adding the CBDC language. They feared it would undermine the delicate bipartisan support for the market structure act needed to give the bill momentum to get through the Senate. The anti-CBDC bill was a strictly Republican measure introduced by conservatives concerned that a central bank coin would allow the government to monitor private transactions.

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Related: Crypto’s Big Week: House Votes Could Reshape Digital Asset Oversight

Under the deal finally reached Wednesday night, the House leadership agreed to add the anti-CBDC language to a must-pass defense appropriation bill, which was also approved Wednesday.

The fate of the CLARITY Act in the Senate remains uncertain, however. Democrats who had supported the bill in committee in the House had begun to back away under pressure from liberal members and party activists angry over Trump and the Trump family’s crypto activity that has yielded them tens of millions in private profit.

According to the most recent quarterly financial filing with the SEC by World Liberty Financial, which is 40% controlled by the Trumps, the company raised $52.1 million from private sales of its crypto token, likely netting the Trump family millions. Trump’s own annual financial disclosure covering 2024 revealed $600 million in income from crypto, his golf clubs, licensing fees and other private ventures, Reuters reported.

On Monday, the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions and a key player within Democratic politics, also took the unusual step of weighing in on financial legislation, writing to members of the House warning them not to support the crypto bills.

“The GENIUS Act, (S. 1582) and the CLARITY Act (HR 3633) pose risks to both retirement funds and to the overall financial stability of the U.S. economy,” the letter said. “Instead of regulating crypto currency, these bills will enable the crypto industry to operate without effective oversight, and this will endanger the financial health of working people.”

In the end, 56 House Democratics joined Republicans in voting in favor of the CLARITY Act. But the drama, and the opposition from elements of the Democratic base, could chill Democratic support that will be needed to advance the measure in the Senate.