The passing of the U.S. crypto market structure bill hangs on the timeline between May and August for passage, Senator Kristen Gillibrand said at Consensus 2026 on Wednesday. Regulators are in the process of finalizing the CLARITY Act, having recently reworked the bill’s language around stablecoin yield.
Senator Gillibrand is a member of the Democratic Party representing the state of New York. Against the backdrop of the ongoing conference in Miami, Gillibrand said that the regulators are working an ethics provision to keep political figures in power against issuing, promoting, or advocating crypto tokens. This provision needs support from the Democratic party, which is still being worked on in terms of the CLARITY Act draft.
“I’m optimistic that we will reach an agreement on that in advance of the markup for the Banking Committee, which should happen in the next two weeks. My hope is that we have a successful Banking Committee markup and these last few provisions are included in the agreement. Once that is completed, we will work with the Agriculture Committee and try to merge the banking and agriculture draft,” the Senator said, breaking down the next steps for this much-awaited crypto market structure bill.
It may take “several weeks”, Gillibrand said, to conclude negotiations on this legislation. The polymakers hope that adding amendments to the previously finalized proposal could take at least two to three weeks before the bill is finally taken to the voting floor.
“I’m hoping that we can get those negotiations done in the next couple of weeks. I’d really like them to be done in advance of the Banking Committee markup. We’ll be continuing to watch that closely,” she noted.
The CLARITY Act is being drafted by the Senate committees of banking and agriculture. The legislation is aimed at establishing a federal regulatory oversight over U.S.’ crypto sector giving it a stronger structure with clearer asset categories, firmer investor protection guardrails to elevate the market integrity situation.
Last week, U.S. lawmakers agreed to preserve stablecoin reward programmes under certain conditions. This would incentivize investors on holding stablecoins similar to how traditional banks offer yeilds on fiat holdings.
The regulators have been meeting with members of the banking as well as crypto industries to balance the bill. Senator Gillibrand pointed out that the provisions to crackdown on illicit crypto activities is under the process of tightening in the bill.
This week, the managing director of TD Cowen’s Washington Research Group, Jaret Seiberg projected an August deadline for the CLARITY Act to reach the voting floor. He said that to schedule a Senate vote on the bill by July, it would need to be cleared by the Senate Banking Committee by June end.
Between the upcoming Memorial Day holiday in the U.S. and the ongress’ August recess — the regulators have only a few days to ready the bill, Seiberg pointed out, justifying his August timeline prediction.
On Tuesday, Michael Selig, the chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), hinted at this possible May markup of the U.S. crypto market structure bill. He said, all hands are on deck to get this legislation on the floor for a vote as early as June.
A definitive deadline for the final passing of this bill remains unclear for now.