Bitcoin Magazine
Senate Banking Committee Opens Historic Crypto Bill Markup as Warren, Republicans Clash Over CLARITY Act Amendments
The Senate Banking Committee opened a historic markup Thursday morning on H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, moving the most sweeping attempt at federal cryptocurrency regulation in American history toward a committee vote.
The session — defined by sharp partisan exchanges, procedural disputes, and targeted Republican courtship of crossover Democrats — unfolded against a hard deadline: if the bill does not clear the committee before the Memorial Day recess, the entire legislative calendar resets.
Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) opened by casting the bill as a correction to years of regulatory failure.
“For years, the digital frontier was trapped in a regulatory gray zone,” he said. “Developers, entrepreneurs and investors were left with uncertainty. They faced confusion and enforcement actions when instead the government should have been crafting clear rules of the road.”
BREAKING Senate Banking Committee markup of the Clarity Act is now LIVE:https://t.co/KHaJNysI0J— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) May 14, 2026
Scott framed the legislation around three pillars: consumer protection, retaining American innovation, and national security.
He acknowledged the bill had grown substantially through negotiation — “since June of last year, we have added 33,000 words and 219 pages to get this legislation as bipartisan as humanly possible” — and conceded that Republicans had not gotten everything they wanted.
Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) offered a frontal assault. She opened not with digital assets, but with grocery prices, overdraft fees, and credit card interest rates — consumer concerns she argued the committee should be addressing instead.
“We’re spending our time working on a bill written by the crypto industry, for the crypto industry,” Warren said.
“Nothing made it into this bill that wasn’t approved by the crypto industry.” She cited a CoinDesk survey showing crypto ranked at the bottom of voter priorities, with just 1% of respondents identifying it as their top concern.
Warren then leveled five charges against the bill: that it would tear a hole in securities laws protecting investors since 1929; declare open season on consumer fraud by preempting state-level protections; repeat the mistakes of 2008 by allowing banks to load up on risky crypto assets; deepen national security vulnerabilities; and do nothing about what she called the Trump administration’s crypto corruption.
“Since taking office last year, the president and his family have raked in at least $1.4 billion in gains from crypto deals alone,” she said.
A procedural fight before the first vote
Before amendments were called, a dispute over which ones would be heard consumed the opening minutes. Warren said more than a doze