The U.S. Senate has delayed key action on the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarification Act, raising new questions about whether Congress will be able to pass long-awaited cryptocurrency regulations in 2026.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman announced that his committee would postpone the bill’s price increases until the last week of January.
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We won’t discuss the Crypto CLARITY Act until two weeks away.
The meeting was scheduled to coincide with the Senate Banking Committee’s rate hike this Thursday. Boozman said the delay is aimed at maintaining bipartisan support.
The move suggests Senate leadership does not yet have the votes needed to pass the bill. Without sufficient bipartisan support, leaders risk bills stalling or dying during committee votes.
The CLARITY Act is the most comprehensive U.S. cryptocurrency market structure bill to date. The House passed its version in mid-2025, but the Senate must approve its own version before the bill can move forward.
Lawmakers had hoped the January price hike would start that process.
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Rather, the delays reflect growing disagreements over key provisions. These include stablecoin rewards, DeFi oversight, how power is divided between the SEC and CFTC, and more.
Markup is where committees debate and amend a bill line by line before voting on whether to send it to the full Senate. If either the Banking Committee or the Agriculture Committee rejects the bill, the bill cannot proceed.
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Why the CLARITY Act is stuck
Under the CLARITY Act, cryptocurrencies will receive formal legal classification. Some tokens will be subject to SEC securities laws, while others will be treated as products supervised by the CFTC.
The bill would also establish federal regulations for virtual currency exchanges, brokers, and custodians, including asset segregation and market oversight standards.
This legislation aims to replace the current enforcement-driven approach with clear legal rules. This change will provide financial institutions and crypto companies with a predictable compliance framework for operating in the United States.
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However, support remains weak. Some Democrats are concerned that the bill will weaken investor protections, while some Republicans oppose stablecoin yields and restrictions on DeFi.
Industry groups have also threatened to withdraw support if subsequent amendments restrict key business models.
As a result, Senate leaders are trying to avoid a failed vote that could take the cryptocurrency bill off the 2026 calendar.
Lawmakers hope to renegotiate the language and rebuild a working coalition by delaying the agriculture committee’s hike until late January.
The success of this effort will determine whether U.S. cryptocurrency reform moves forward or falls into further stagnation.
