But elsewhere, another sign of hope appeared in a Wednesday letter from Senator Ron Wyden to Senate leadership that the Oregon Democrat supported the way the earlier legislation handled the legal protections for developers — specifically the section of Clarity known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, which would ensure crypto developers wouldn’t be treated under federal regulations as money transmitters if they’re not handling customer assets. The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has made preserving the BRCA a top aim in the Clarity negotiations.
Though some of the crypto industry’s DC insiders had begun to express private uncertainty about the Clarity Act’s survival, the effort hasn’t yet reached its fatal deadline for getting done before the summer congressional break and the shift of attention to the fall midterm elections.
The Senate calendar includes three remaining weeks in July and the first week of August. However, the process to advance the legislation could take a few days of that time, meaning there’s scant runway left for a 2026 takeoff. And there’s some concern a defense spending bill may also complicate the chamber’s bandwidth.
Also, the U.S. House of Representatives would need to approve the Senate’s version of Clarity before it could become law, so the process would await the action of a House that’s been nearly paralyzed by Republican infighting. And it would then head to the desk of President Donald Trump for a signature to make it law, though the president has refused to sign another popular piece of legislation — the Senate’s bipartisan housing bill — as he insists that Congress needs to prioritize his demands for new voting rules.