Before the Senate Finance Committee, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged lawmakers to rally behind the Clarity Act. At the same time, he stated that the strategic Bitcoin reserve of the United States is advancing at "deliberate but purposeful speed."
The Clarity Act is a proposed federal framework that would, for the first time, define clear jurisdictions between the two major US financial regulators for digital assets. Under the bill, the CFTC would gain exclusive control over the spot markets for "digital commodities," while the SEC would retain authority over investment contract assets. The House of Representatives already passed a version of the legislation in 2025. Later, on 14 May 2026, the Senate Banking Committee voted 15 to 9 in favor, backed by all 13 Republicans as well as Democrats Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks. However, a vote on the Senate floor requires 60 votes, which means at least seven additional Democrats would have to sign on. Bessent's summer target leaves roughly eight weeks of Senate calendar to get there.
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Eight weeks of Senate calendar for the Clarity Act
The hurdle in the Senate is higher than the committee vote suggests. A cloture vote on the floor requires 60 votes, meaning at least seven more Democrats beyond the current coalition. Moreover, both Democratic yes votes in the Banking Committee stressed that their committee vote did not necessarily reflect their position on the floor. In addition, a technical obstacle remains: the Senate Agriculture Committee passed a parallel version, and both texts must be merged before the floor vote.
The calendar adds further pressure. About eight weeks of Senate calendar remain before the summer recess, and the Clarity Act alone would consume roughly a full week of floor time. At the same time, the bill competes with a crowded agenda: FISA reauthorization, immigration funding, the Farm Bill, the NDAA, housing policy, and the Iran war powers are also on the list. As a result, the crypto framework is wrestling with measures that many senators consider politically more urgent.
If the summer fails, the next realistic window shifts to September. After that, only the "lame duck" session following the midterm elections would remain, where passage is considered unlikely.
Contested points in the Clarity Act
The bill hinges not only on vote arithmetic but also carries several substantive conflicts. The most sharply contested issue is the stablecoin yield rule, which would prohibit passive returns on stablecoin holdings at intermediaries. One of the main concerns behind it: interest-bearing stablecoins could compete directly with bank deposits and money market funds, thereby pulling capital out of the regulated banking system. Industry representatives, however, see this as an artificial restriction on a core use case. Furthermore, the proposed Treasury sanctions authority in the DeFi space and the protections for software developers remain contested. In addition, ethics provisions on crypto holdings of government officials are particularly sensitive given the conflicts of interest surrounding President Trump.
Resistance is also forming outside Congress. The union umbrella organization AFL-CIO and other associations warn of risks to retirement and pension funds. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies criticize the bill for containing insufficient anti-money laundering measures. These opponents from outside the coalition further complicate an already fragile bipartisan consensus.
The strategic Bitcoin reserve: status and the announcement that never came
The Bitcoin reserve traces back to Executive Order 14233, which President Donald Trump signed on 6 March 2025. Instead of active accumulation, the holdings draw exclusively on Bitcoin seized in criminal and civil proceedings, therefore involving no market purchases with taxpayer money. In addition, the Treasury manages a separate "U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile" for other confiscated cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is thus deliberately separated from the remaining digital assets.
The US government currently holds 328,372 BTC, which at a price of 65,000 USD amounts to roughly 21 billion USD. As a result, it controls about 1.6% of all Bitcoin ever created. The decision not to sell marks a clear reversal from prior practice. Until 2024, the state regularly sold off seized coins once the court proceedings concluded, instead of holding them. According to the Executive Order, this practice cost taxpayers more than 17 billion USD in foregone gains, because the sold coins later rose substantially in value. The EO 14233 drew the consequence and now treats the holdings as a long-term reserve.
Nevertheless, a central question remains open. Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, had announced a "big announcement" on the reserve's next steps "in the coming weeks" at the Bitcoin 2026 and Consensus 2026 conferences in April 2026. That announcement, however, is still pending. Bessent confirmed progress but named no concrete details, and he dodged the question about the origin of roughly 1 billion USD in cryptocurrency seized from Iran.
"We are moving at deliberate but purposeful speed, and we are making sure we run this complicated process according to best practices so that the results endure." - Scott Bessent, US Treasury Secretary, Senate Finance Committee
Reserve as a national security strategy
Bessent positioned the Bitcoin reserve not as pure crypto policy but as part of the national security strategy. "Economic security is national security," the Treasury Secretary told the committee. This framing carries a structural downside: the executive branch cannot buy Bitcoin on the open market, because that would require congressional authorization. Witt had already stressed that the executive could take a major step forward without legislation, yet the long-term durability of the reserve would require a law. "It is absolutely essential to bring US best practices home," Bessent said. "We are working tirelessly to take custody of these assets and to make the United States the innovation capital of the world."
The public appearance falls into a weaker market phase. In the four weeks before the hearing, crypto ETFs recorded net outflows of 5 billion USD, while Bitcoin fell below 64,000. Consequently, Bessent's push sends a political signal in an environment where institutional capital had recently been pulling out.
