Congress has limited time to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, but Senator Cynthia Lummis remains unwavering. Senator Cynthia Lummis delivered a message at the DC Blockchain Summit on Wednesday, balancing urgency with cautious optimism. The message was clear: the bill, commonly referred to as the CLARITY Act, is closer than ever, but the window is rapidly closing.
Lummis, a leading architect of the legislation, admitted that progress had moved slower than she anticipated. She had expected the industry to already be celebrating after the bill cleared the US House of Representatives in July 2025. Instead, a bitter dispute between banking and crypto industry representatives over stablecoin yield and rewards stalled the legislation in the Senate Banking Committee.
“We are so close this time,” Lummis told summit attendees, adding that key stakeholders had been working directly with the White House to broker a compromise on the yield issue. “We think we’ve got it.”
April Markup in Sight
Lummis said lawmakers are now targeting an April markup session, following Congress’ Easter recess, though the Banking Committee had not officially rescheduled one as of yet. The Senate Agriculture Committee had advanced its version of the bill in January, meaning legislators must eventually merge both versions to address overlapping commodities and securities law questions before a full chamber vote.
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Beyond yield, lawmakers are still wrestling with thorny issues, including tokenized equities, ethics rules around elected officials profiting from crypto investments, decentralized finance, and money transmitter definitions. The White House has hosted three meetings with crypto and banking industry representatives in 2026 to push the legislation forward. Lummis said the DeFi question appears resolved, and her office expects a stablecoin yield deal “in the next few days.”
A Shrinking Window
Recently, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno escalated the situation by cautioning that if the CLARITY Act fails to pass by May, digital asset legislation will remain stagnant indefinitely. With the November 2026 midterms putting all 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats in play, the current Republican-controlled Congress may represent the last realistic shot at passage.
Lummis, who announced in December that she will not seek reelection, put it plainly in a post on X: “This may be our only chance to get market structure done.”
