Senate Vote on Clarity Act Unclear as Ethics, Stablecoin Yield Issues Emerge

The US Senate’s path to taking up the Clarity Act, a digital-asset market structure bill, has become increasingly uncertain. A White House review of changes to the bill’s ethics provisions, combined with disagreements over stablecoin yield, has clouded the prospects for a procedural vote before the recess.

Eleanor Terrett, host of Crypto in America, reported on August 6 that the White House is reviewing a bipartisan amendment on ethics provisions drafted by Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego. Congress is waiting for the White House’s response or a revised proposal.

The key question is whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune will file cloture, the procedural step needed to begin consideration of the Clarity Act. Both sides are concerned that if the cloture vote fails, the effort to advance the bill after nearly a year could fall apart, Terrett said.

At the same time, pressure is rising within the crypto industry and among Republicans to make progress on the bill before the Senate goes into recess. If Thune does not file cloture by the night of August 6, a vote before the recess could effectively become impossible.

The issue of whether crypto products such as stablecoins can pay yield has also emerged as a new variable. Some senators are pushing to revise those provisions, and a recent Wall Street Journal opinion article has added momentum to those efforts.

Terrett had earlier said crypto policy officials were in a strange impasse and that the White House had begun to engage more directly with the bipartisan ethics proposal from Tillis and Gallego. Whether the two sides can reach agreement on the ethics language and the yield issue will determine whether the Clarity Act can advance before the recess.