Senate GOP unveils revised Clarity Act text before Tuesday cloture vote
DeFi & Yields ·
Republicans narrowed a key crypto liability shield and added ethics and stablecoin safeguards in what they describe as a final offer to Democrats.
Senate Republicans have circulated an updated version of the Clarity Act ahead of a scheduled cloture vote on Tuesday, framing the changes as their last, best and final proposal to win over Democratic votes, according to reporting on X. President Trump has signed off on a reworked ethics section, and lawmakers made adjustments to provisions covering the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, stablecoin yield, and agricultural-related derivatives oversight.
The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act language has been scaled back so that it now applies only to the Bank Secrecy Act and civil enforcement matters; wording that would have shielded certain conduct from criminal prosecution, including cases brought under Section 1960, has been stripped from the bill. On ethics, a GOP aide said Trump agreed to roughly 80% of the Tillis-Gallego framework, which would require officials to divest substantial crypto holdings or place them in a blind trust, and would give state attorneys general authority to enforce the rules — a role the White House had previously resisted, per Decrypt.
The revised text also inserts a stablecoin yield circuit breaker, an idea Senator Tillis first floated in July, letting federal regulators step in if evidence emerges of large-scale deposit outflows from community banks into stablecoins; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would serve as the regulator making that determination. Separately, the agriculture title now includes tighter restrictions on vertical integration, addressing affiliate trading and conflict-of-interest concerns for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers, while affirming that state consumer protection laws remain in force and that developer protections do not exempt anyone from derivatives law or reach into prediction markets.
The release follows related developments across the chamber: Senator Lummis has said a final text is ready after negotiations that folded in more than 120 Democratic demands alongside new federal ethics standards, and other accounts describe the package adding DOJ and state enforcement powers plus the same stablecoin circuit breaker to build Democratic support, per CryptoPotato. Senate Democrats reportedly held an emergency meeting to review the changes, with CNBC noting a vote is anticipated around September 15.
Whether the concessions are enough to secure Democratic crossover votes remains unresolved, and coverage of the bill's prospects continues to be tracked by outlets including WuBlockchain. The outcome of Tuesday's cloture vote will determine whether the narrowed BRCA language, the ethics compromise, and the new stablecoin and agricultural guardrails move forward or require further negotiation.