Key insights
- Progress on the Clarity Act, particularly regarding stablecoin rewards, has boosted Bitcoin prices. The draft legislation suggests a compromise allowing some customer awards while banning others resembling bank deposit interest. While crypto markets are optimistic, banking groups express concerns, indicating potential hurdles remain. The perceived odds of the Clarity Act becoming law in 2026 have increased, reflecting improved sentiment.
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The ink may not be dry on the bill yet—but crypto fans are calling the latest legislative news a win.
The Clarity Act, which the Trump administration and the industry has been eager to pass, has taken a step forward after months of delays. Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks, members of the banking committee, finalized a draft that was made public late last week by PunchBowl News that suggested a compromise, which could mean progress toward a signing the delay of which has been viewed as an overhang on crypto by some investors.
Bitcoin has risen since. The development pushed the price of of the cryptocurrency back above $81,000 for the first time in months—it's still down for the year— and it continues to climb amid revived appetites for risk.
Traders also appear to be getting more optimistic about the Clarity Act's passage this year, which some market experts have said would boost crypto prices; Polymarket's perceived odds that it would become law in 2026, which not long ago were below coin-flip levels, recently topped 60%.
After months of delays and negotiations, crypto appears to be happy with a compromise on stablecoin rewards in the Senate's latest draft text.
The rewards that can be offered to stablecoin holders have been a source of disagreement between some in the banking and crypto industries, and that's where progress appears to have been made. Tillis and Alsobrooks yesterday issued a joint statement saying the proposed language would allow crypto companies to offer some forms of customer awards while banning others that resemble interest on bank deposits.
"Some in the banking industry may not want either of these things to happen, and we respectfully agree to disagree," the statement read.
But there are signs the battle ins't over. Banking groups, including the American Bankers Association and the Bank Policy Institute, on Monday took umbrage with the text, which they said in a statement "falls short of the goal" of a blanket prohibition on stablecoin rewards.
Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad was upbeat. "In the end, the banks were able to get more restrictions on rewards," he wrote on social media, "but we protected what matters — the ability for Americans to earn rewards, based on real usage of crypto platforms and networks."