Momentum has picked up on Capitol Hill this week as lawmakers and industry leaders converged at the DC Blockchain Summit, where Senator Cynthia Lummis said she expects the long‑delayed Senate Banking Committee markup on the crypto market‑structure bill (CLARITY Act) to be scheduled for late April.
Breakthrough On DeFi And Stablecoin Yield
Senator Lummis told attendees she is confident the committee will approve the crypto market structure bill and that the full Senate could pass the legislation by the end of the year.
“We’re gonna have this thing done come hell or high water by the end of the year.” She added that a Banking GOP markup is likely in the second half of April after the Easter recess. “We think we’ve got it,” she claimed at the event.
Stablecoin yield has been one of the thorniest issues slowing talks; bank lobbyists have argued that such yield could effectively resemble deposit interest and threaten deposit accounts.
Lummis said negotiators have drafted language to block crypto platforms from marketing or delivering rewards in ways that sound like traditional deposit yield or that scale with the amount of assets a user holds.
“Anything that sounds like banking product terminology will not appear,” she said, noting she had not seen the most recent text but that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had signaled willingness to compromise.
Senators Fast‑Track Crypto Bill
Lummis also said negotiators believe they have resolved outstanding questions around decentralized finance. “We think we’ve got the DeFi issue put to bed,” she said, reflecting industry and legislative efforts to clarify how peer‑to‑peer (P2P) and protocol‑level services should be regulated.
The senator used social media to underscore the political moment, stating that there has “never been a more pro‑digital asset administration in United States history than @POTUS,” and urging colleagues to seize what she described as a unique opportunity to finalize crypto market‑structure reform.
Reporting from Crypto in America added further signs of progress. Journalist Eleanor Terrett relayed comments from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, who told the summit he expected to have “the first proposal” on stablecoin yield by the end of the week.
Chair Scott credited Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis, along with Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House Crypto Council, for helping advance negotiations between the two financial sectors.
Importantly, Scott also said the committee is making headway on decentralized finance (DeFi), ethics, and quorum issues, and that some Democratic concerns are being addressed by proposing minority‑party representation at the SEC and CFTC — a concession aimed at broadening bipartisan support.
Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com