‘We need more time’ – CLARITY Act delay sends approval odds to a 3-month low
The delay and banking industry holdout deepened market uncertainty on the bill's passage.
Lawmakers are now calling for a delay of the scheduled April markup of the crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act.
Senator Thomas Tillis (R-N.C), a key negotiator leading the stablecoin yield deal between the crypto and banking industries, called for more time to bring everyone on board. He added,
It is very important for me not to accelerate things, to hear everybody, and give them a rational basis for what we do accept.
According to a Punchbowl News report, Tillis informed the Senate Banking Committee chair, Tim Scott (R-S.C) that they should opt for a May markup instead.
The bill was expected to undergo another markup attempt during the last week of April (from the 27th). However, the banking industry reached out to some members of the Senate Banking Committee, opposing the latest stablecoin yield deal.
And with the White House lashing out at the banks for being ‘greedy,’ the fallout was expected to derail the scheduled markup. So the delay was not a surprise.
Chances of CLARITY Act passage slip to 3-month low
But the May timeline means lawmakers are running out of time ahead of the November midterms.
Following the delay, the market quickly repriced the possibility of the bill becoming law this year. According to prediction site Polymarket, the passage chance immediately dropped to a three-month low of 45%.
As of writing, however, the odds slightly recovered to 48%.
But when measured from February’s peak of 82%, the current passage odds showed the market was uncertain of the bill’s path forward. Any further holdout by banks over the stablecoin yield would likely delay the markup further and push the bill to 2027.
Unfortunately, the crypto industry can’t afford to miss this window with a pro-crypto Trump administration controlling Congress. As things could change after the November elections.
On this backdrop, a crypto lobby, The Digital Chamber, wrote a letter to the Senate Banking Committee and implored,
We respectfully urge the Committee to schedule a markup as soon as practical and continue this work in a transparent, deliberative, and bipartisan manner.
Taylor Barr, government affairs director at The Digital Chamber, stressed that ‘CLARITY cannot wait’ as U.S. citizens have waited for far too long.
Final Summary
- Senator Tillis called for the CLARITY Act markup to be pushed to May to ‘hear everybody.’
- The crypto lobby called for the markup to be done as soon as possible, but market expectations for the bill’s passage dropped to a three-month low.
