Prior to a crucial upcoming vote next week, Senate Republicans have published an updated draft of the landmark Clarity Act digital asset legislation, which features fresh regulatory language concerning “non-decentralized finance protocols.”
On Thursday, Senator Cynthia Lummis alongside fellow Republicans made public a 630-page legislative document.
“We have integrated over 114 distinct provisions at the request of my Democratic colleagues, and consequently, this bill represents a robust bipartisan achievement,” Lummis stated in an official announcement. “In contrast to standard rulemaking, statute grants this sector a permanent remedy that insulates it from the constant fluctuations of presidential administrations.”
Throughout the past year, the Senate has attempted to advance the Clarity Act, which aims to establish the first federal-level regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency industry. The legislation is scheduled for its initial procedural vote on September 15 as lawmakers return to Washington with a constrained window to push the bill forward.
The Clarity Act confronts a precarious route toward President Donald Trump’s desk. The initiative has encountered continuous obstacles, such as disputes between traditional banking institutions and digital asset advocates regarding stablecoin reward policies, anxieties centered on illicit finance, and a major unresolved dilemma: how to handle Trump’s expanding crypto fortune, which has surged into hundreds of millions of dollars tied to World Liberty Financial and his TRUMP memecoin.
During July, Trump consented to an ethics clause prohibiting government officials, employees, and their spouses from issuing or backing virtual currencies. This provision would be policed by the Department of Justice instead of state attorneys general and is set to sunset in January 2029. Democrats denounced the terminology as inadequate and subsequently offered an alternative ethics framework alongside Republican Senator Thom Tillis.
Politico reported that the most recent iteration lacks any backing from Democrats, an essential requirement for legislative approval. Furthermore, the draft maintains its original ethics provisions without major alterations and continues to assign primary enforcement powers to the Department of Justice.
New version
The revised text introduces new regulatory guidelines for “non-decentralized finance trading protocols,” defined as an individual or collective entity that “act in concert, has the authority, directly or indirectly, through any contract, arrangement, understanding, relationship, or otherwise, to control or materially alter the functionality, operation, or rules of consensus or agreement of the decentralized finance trading protocol.”
Such non-DeFi trading platforms would be required to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, with the legislation instructing both the CFTC and the Treasury department to draft corresponding regulations. A crypto sector insider revealed to The Block that the inclusion of this section was requested by Democrats.
Additionally, the refreshed document specifies that DeFi stipulations apply exclusively to “spot and cash digital commodity transactions,” a modification Lummis noted was designed to resolve concerns raised by tribal governments concerning the effects of the Clarity Act on prediction markets. Clarifications were also incorporated regarding how credit unions handle cryptocurrency operations, according to Lummis’s statement.
Lummis, who plans to depart from Congress in January 2027 as she declines to pursue another term, has repeatedly utilized X to advocate for the passage of the Clarity Act.
“The Clarity Act enables the United States to establish these regulations rather than watch from the sidelines while Singapore or the UAE dictate them to us,” Lummis communicated via a post on Wednesday. “Our nation boasts a rich history of leadership. We must not deviate from that legacy.”
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-09-10-senate-republicans-unveil-revised-crypto-bill-ahead-of-key-clarity-act-vote-next-week-414180.
