The long-awaited crypto Clarity Act may be further delayed as August recess fast approaches.
Despite optimism last week from top crypto companies — like Coinbase — and backing from top financial institutions, lawmakers appear to be prioritizing other bills to vote on before their five-week break starting Thursday or Friday.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren was even quoted saying in a Sunday Punchbowl News report that “more people in the Senate are beginning to question crypto’s electoral invincibility.”
Pro-crypto Republicans, such as Senator Cynthia Lummis, have blasted Democrats for deliberately holding back the bill after members of the party said that the current bill falls short.
Crypto critic Warren has claimed that the bill will allow criminals and cartels to move money and further enrich President Donald Trump — despite the proposed law banning government promotion of crypto.
The Clarity Act, which was passed last year by the House of Representatives with support from both parties but has been in a deadlock this year, will set in stone digital asset regulation in the U.S.
A new bill draft started circulating in July addressing concerns around ethics. The language would ban government officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto.
The bill has stalled this year as the banking lobby has raised concerns over stablecoin yield, claiming they could lose their deposit base if crypto exchanges pay attractive rewards to customers.
Another sticking point some lawmakers have with the crypto industry is President Trump’s business interests: some have alleged conflicts of interest as his family has made money from meme coins and the decentralized finance protocol, World Liberty Financial.
Despite slow movements on the bill, top Wall Street firms such as Fidelity and Goldman Sachs, as well as law enforcement organizations, have backed the bill in its current form.
And Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Institution and former Blockchain Association CEO, said on X Monday that bipartisan work on the bill was continuing, with Republican Thom Tillis and Democrat Ruben Gallego working together to draft new language on ethics for the act.
Coinbase, which has been hashing out the bill with lawmakers, struck an upbeat tone regarding the bill last week, with the company’s Chief Policy Officer, Faryar Shirzad, saying that Democrats and Republicans had worked hard to draft the legislation.
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