CLARITY Act advances in Senate on ethics talks, possible Aug 2025 signing

| cryptoslate.com
The CLARITY Act is still not law, but Galaxy Digital says the US crypto regulation bill could reach President Donald Trump for signing in early August if lawmakers resolve remaining disputes fast. After a bipartisan Senate Banking Committee vote on May 14 (15-9) advanced the market structure bill, Galaxy lifted its 2026 passage odds to 75%. Next steps are procedural and time-sensitive. The Senate Banking Committee text must be merged with a Senate Agriculture Committee version, then sent to the Senate floor, followed by House-Senate reconciliation before the CLARITY Act can be signed—likely during the week of Aug. 3, not July 4. The biggest sticking point is ethics language. Senators Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks support moving ahead, but want limits on senior officials and their families profiting from, promoting, or holding certain digital-asset interests while federal rules are written. Galaxy calls this ethics compromise the key to locking in Democratic votes. Other disputes include DeFi provisions and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. Law-enforcement-focused lawmakers worry parts of the CLARITY Act could reduce oversight of decentralized protocols, validators, or infrastructure providers. Traders are watching the process as BTCUSD is cited near $77,972 for near-term catalysts.
Neutral
On BTC specifically, the news is more of a catalyst path than a direct policy certainty. The CLARITY Act has cleared a major procedural hurdle with a 15-9 bipartisan Senate Banking Committee vote, and Galaxy’s odds rise to 75%, which can support risk sentiment. However, traders still face meaningful legislative friction: ethics-language negotiations (conflict-of-interest style restrictions) and disputed DeFi/Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act areas must be resolved before floor scheduling and reconciliation. That uncertainty makes it more likely to produce volatility around headlines rather than a clean, sustained trend. In the short term, BTC could react to vote/markup updates and August-signing timing expectations. In the long term, if the CLARITY Act ultimately passes with a workable ethics compromise, it could improve regulatory visibility and encourage US product access/tokenization narratives—generally supportive for liquidity. But until final passage, the mixed signals point to a neutral-to-choppy trading environment for BTC.