Today, Senator Lummis released a combined market structure bill text, merging the Senate Banking’s amended Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (H.R. 3633) and the Agriculture Committee’s Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act (S. 3755) into a single package. The release marks a significant step toward a comprehensive U.S. framework for digital asset markets and sets the path for the bill to move to the Senate floor.
Reaching unified Senate text has taken years of bipartisan work. The House passed the CLARITY Act in July 2025 by a bipartisan vote of 294-134. The Senate Agriculture Committee advanced their bill in January while the Banking Committee advanced its version 15-9 in May 2026. Merging the Banking and Agriculture products into a single bill is a final step before consideration by the full Senate.
This blog outlines what happens next, including votes, timings, and why this matters.
What’s next for the Clarity Act?
A unified Clarity Act sets the stage for Senate floor action, which consists of several steps:
- Majority Leader John Thune must file a motion to proceed to close debate and proceed to a vote. This is called cloture and it requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. The Senate has a 53-47 Republican majority, which means at least seven Democrats will need to support advancing the bill. This underscores the importance of continued bipartisan engagement that has defined this bill’s path.
- Following the cloture vote, the Senate votes on the motion to proceed, which marks the bill’s official floor consideration. It would then be subject to amendments. The motion to proceed to vote and subsequent amendments require 50 votes.
- After amendment votes, Leader Thune would then file cloture on the bill for final passage. As with the motion to proceed, cloture vote and final passage would respectively have a 60 vote and 50 vote threshold.
- Assuming Senate passage, the legislation will then be sent to the House. It needs to pass in that chamber before the final text goes to the President’s desk for signature and enactment into law
The Senate has limited floor time before the August recess, which begins on August 7th , leaving a narrow but critical window for passage. Despite significant momentum, there is limited time to secure passage in the Senate.
Full Senate Process:
- Leader Thune files cloture on the motion to proceed.
- Cloture vote on the motion to proceed occurs following one intervening legislative day (60 vote threshold).
- Motion to proceed vote occurs following 30 hours of debate (50 vote threshold)
- Amendments are filed and considered (amendments have a 50 vote threshold).
- Leader Thune files cloture on the final bill.
- Cloture vote on final bill after another intervening legislative day (60 vote threshold)
- Final vote on bill following 30 hours of debate (50 vote threshold)
Why This Matters
Market structure is the foundational piece of the U.S. digital asset framework. Just as the GENIUS Act established a framework enabling the use of payment stablecoins, comprehensive market structure legislation is needed to define the rules of the road for the market itself.
The stakes are concrete and immediate. Roughly one in four American adults own crypto, yet the market still operates under regulatory ambiguity and fragmented state licensing frameworks with different requirements. That vacuum carries a cost: unclear rules push activity, infrastructure, and talent offshore. This risk is not theoretical – offshoring is already happening. The market share of centralized exchanges based in the U.S. is only 12%; the share of volume growth occurring is also diminishing, with only 2-5% of global growth occurring in the U.S. over the past year; and only 19% of crypto developers are in the U.S., a share that has dropped 51% over the past decade.
Clear, durable rules would draw defined lines of regulatory authority, strengthen consumer protection, and keep innovation and jobs in the United States. That is what this process is working toward, and why finishing it matters.
CCI will remain engaged at every stage — with Congressional members and their staff, the Administration, and our members — to support a final framework that strengthens consumer protection, market integrity, developer protections, and U.S. leadership in digital assets. The release of unified text brings the United States meaningfully closer to durable rules for digital asset markets. Now the work turns to the floor.
Learn more about our work on Market Structure:
