A seven-week window. That is all that may stand between the U.S. Crypto Legislation and Regulatory Innovation Transparency Year Act and what crypto insiders fear could be a years-long delay. As Washington’s legislative calendar tightens, industry voices are sounding the alarm that the act, which is commonly called the CLARITY Act, has a narrow path to passage with each passing day.
Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, a major crypto investment firm, has put a hard deadline on the table. If the CLARITY Act does not clear the committee before the end of April, he warned, its chances of becoming law in 2026 collapse sharply. “Floor time is running out, and odds diminish every day that passes,” Thorn wrote on X, urging the bill to reach the Senate floor no later than early May.
The pressure comes as Senate Majority Leader John Thune signals that digital asset legislation sits behind the SAVE America Act—a voter citizenship verification bill—on the chamber’s current priority list. That sequencing alone threatens to push crypto market structure reform further down an already crowded congressional agenda.
Stablecoin Debate Masks Deeper Fault Lines
The most visible stumbling block right now is the fight over stablecoin rewards—a point of friction between the banking sector and the crypto industry over whether such yields could destabilize traditional finance. Banks worry that if people start earning higher returns through stablecoins than through traditional savings accounts, they will pull their money out of banks. This may weaken the financial system that millions rely on every day.
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But Thorn cautions that resolving this dispute will not clear the road ahead. He points to unresolved questions around decentralized finance, developer protections, and which regulatory bodies hold authority over digital assets as issues waiting to resurface once the stablecoin argument settles.
Senator Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, struck a blunt note this week, telling both crypto and banking lobbies to prepare for compromise. “All of us will probably walk away just a little bit unhappy,” she said.
Timeline Slips Could Push Bill to 2029
Some lawmakers had entered 2026 with cautious optimism. Senator Bernie Moreno floated April as a realistic target as recently as February. But investment bank T. D. Cowen threw cold water on that outlook in January, projecting that a final bill may not pass until 2027 and could take effect as late as 2029 if Democrats reclaim at least one chamber after the midterms and slow the process.
President Donald Trump added his voice to the urgency earlier this month, publicly criticizing banks for stalling the Senate’s crypto bill. “The US needs to get market structure done ASAP,” Trump posted on March 4. For an industry that has waited years for regulatory certainty, the next seven weeks may prove to be the most consequential stretch in the history of American crypto legislation.
