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Cody Carbone, CEO of The Digital Chamber, appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday with a pointed message: pass the CLARITY Act, or watch everyday consumers keep paying the price for regulatory confusion.
His argument is straightforward. Without clear rules governing digital asset markets, the financial system’s inefficiencies pile up as hidden costs. And those costs, Carbone contends, land disproportionately on people who can least afford them.
A bill with momentum, but not enough
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, formally known as H.R. 3633, has already cleared some significant hurdles. The House passed the bill in July 2025 by a 294-134 vote, a margin wide enough to suggest genuine bipartisan appetite for crypto market-structure reform.
The Senate Banking Committee then advanced the legislation on May 14, 2026, with a 15-9 bipartisan vote.
The bill still hasn’t reached the Senate floor. The holdup comes down to unresolved ethics provisions that have stalled further legislative movement.
Carbone’s testimony on June 23 was essentially a public nudge to senators: stop negotiating in circles and get the bill to a vote.
Why market structure matters for regular people
Right now, the rulebook for digital assets is a patchwork of state-level regulations, enforcement actions from federal agencies, and court rulings that sometimes contradict each other. The result is a system where companies spend enormous sums on legal compliance, often passing those costs downstream to users.
Carbone’s core thesis before the committee was that lower-income households bear the brunt of these inefficiencies. When financial products cost more to offer because of regulatory ambiguity, the added friction shows up in fees, limited access, and fewer competitive options.
The CLARITY Act aims to replace that patchwork with a unified federal framework. It would establish clearer definitions for which digital assets are securities and which are commodities, a distinction that has been the subject of expensive legal battles for years.
The lobbying push behind the scenes
The Digital Chamber, which bills itself as the world’s largest digital asset and blockchain trade association, is part of a broader coalition that includes the Blockchain Association and the Crypto Council for Innovation. All three groups have been actively lobbying for the CLARITY Act’s passage, framing the legislation as essential not just for industry growth but for maintaining US competitiveness in the global digital asset race.
Industry leaders have expressed cautious optimism about the bill’s trajectory despite the current stall. A bipartisan vote out of committee is a strong signal. But the ethics provisions creating friction could delay progress for weeks or months.
What this means for investors
If the CLARITY Act passes the Senate and gets signed into law, the immediate effect would be a reduction in the regulatory uncertainty that has kept some institutional investors on the sidelines. Clear classification rules for digital assets would let funds, banks, and asset managers engage with crypto without the legal ambiguity that currently makes compliance departments nervous.
The ethics provisions causing the current blockage are worth watching closely. If senators can resolve those disagreements quickly, the bill could reach a floor vote in the coming weeks. If the negotiations drag on through summer recess, the timeline stretches considerably.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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