BlockBeats News, May 15th, The Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act (known as the CLARITY Act) has been approved by the Senate Banking Committee this morning and will now proceed to a full Senate vote. Currently, the market is optimistic about the prospect of the legislation being passed this year, with the prediction market Polymarket giving it over a 70% chance of success. However, the CLARITY Act still faces further hurdles, with the toughest one being the upcoming motion to end debate and proceed to a full Senate vote, requiring 60 out of 100 votes. A breakdown of the CLARITY Act's upcoming legislative process is as follows:

The Senate Banking Committee version of the bill is set to be merged with the Senate Agriculture Committee version, with a high likelihood of success. The Banking Committee version covers the SEC-related aspects, focusing on securities classification, exchange registration, DeFi protection, etc.; the Agriculture Committee version, which was passed on January 29th, covers the CFTC-related parts, focusing on digital commodity spot markets, derivatives, intermediaries, etc. The two committee versions complement each other and do not have any significant potential conflicts.

The merged CLARITY Act will then proceed to a full Senate vote. The vote will first require a "cloture" motion to end debate, needing 60 out of 100 votes, and without 60 votes, any senator can indefinitely delay, preventing the final vote on the bill. Currently, two Democratic senators are cross-party supporting, with all 51 Republican senators expected to vote in favor. However, at least 7 Democratic senators switching their votes are still needed for the bill to pass, making this the biggest variable in the CLARITY Act's legislative journey. Once the cloture motion is successful, the final vote will be a simple majority (51 votes) to pass and establish the Senate version of the CLARITY Act.


Subsequently, the Senate version of the CLARITY Act will be reconciled with the House version passed in July 2025, forming a bicameral conference committee to reach a final unified text, and both chambers will then vote on the final version. Only a simple majority is required for this step since the committees have already reached a consensus before the vote, leading to a swift passage and submission for Trump's legislative signature.