U.S. Senate Republicans released a 630-page revised draft of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on Sept. 10, setting up a substitute amendment that would rewrite the House-passed H.R.3633 in full. Cynthia Lummis, chair of the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets panel, said the new version incorporates more than 100 changes proposed by Democratic lawmakers.
The Senate is scheduled to hold a cloture vote at 2:15 p.m. Eastern on Sept. 15 on whether to begin considering the bill. That vote would only determine whether the Senate can take up the measure, and it requires 60 votes. It would not mean the bill has passed the chamber. The Block, citing Politico, reported that as of Sept. 10 the revised text still did not have Democratic backing.
The revised draft builds on the July text
The CLARITY Act is designed to define the regulatory boundary between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for the crypto market. The House passed H.R.3633 in July 2025 by a vote of 294 to 134, with 78 Democrats voting in favor. In May this year, the Senate Banking Committee advanced its own version by a 15-9 vote.
The July draft ran 616 pages and for the first time combined proposals from the Banking Committee and the Agriculture Committee. The September version adds 14 pages.
If enacted, digital commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers would register with the CFTC and take on duties tied to customer asset segregation, conflict-of-interest management, trade records and bankruptcy protections. Securities and tokenized stocks would remain under SEC oversight. Network tokens that meet the definition of an "ancillary asset" would have to disclose project progress, token allocations and related-party holdings.
New CFTC registration path for non-decentralized DeFi protocols
The July text had already directed the SEC and the U.S. Treasury Department to write rules for "decentralized finance trading protocols" in cases involving controllers engaged in securities brokerage, trading, execution, clearing or custody. The September version adds parallel provisions in the Commodity Exchange Act section, placing digital commodity spot activity under the CFTC and requiring joint rulemaking by the CFTC, SEC and Treasury.
The revised draft lays out three conditions. A protocol may fall into the non-decentralized category if there is a controller able to alter its functionality, operating method or consensus rules; if transactions are not executed entirely according to transparent rules written into code in advance; or if someone can restrict, censor or prohibit users from accessing the protocol. Meeting any one of those conditions may be enough.
The bill also says regulatory obligations will be determined by actual functions such as brokerage, trading, execution, clearing and custody. Calling a project a DAO, a foundation or an open-source protocol would not change that analysis.
Operators that retain upgrade keys, pause switches, transaction censorship authority or control over assets could be required to register with the CFTC and comply with disclosure, recordkeeping, business supervision and Bank Secrecy Act obligations. By contrast, people who only run nodes, provide oracles, publish code, develop non-custodial wallets or offer read-only interfaces would not incur CFTC registration duties solely for those activities. Participation in a security committee or incident response alone would also not by itself make someone a protocol controller. The CFTC would still retain enforcement authority over fraud, manipulation and false reporting.
Prediction markets and credit union provisions were also adjusted
The September text limits the DeFi protection on the CFTC side to digital commodity spot and cash transactions. Prediction markets typically use event contracts, so they would not automatically receive a DeFi exemption through that provision. Lummis said the change responds to concerns from Native American tribes that prediction markets could bypass tribal gaming rights and state gambling rules.
The bill does not directly decide whether event contracts are gambling products. Disputes involving CFTC authority, state law and tribal gaming compacts would remain unresolved.
The credit union language also received technical revisions. Federal credit unions would be allowed to use digital assets or distributed ledgers for payment, lending, custody or trading activities already permitted by law. Insured credit unions could operate under the same conditions. The text also says the provision does not expand existing statutory powers for credit unions and does not waive capital, risk-management or consumer-protection requirements.
Stablecoin yield limits and ethics language were largely unchanged
The revised draft continues to bar crypto service providers and their affiliates from paying U.S. users passive interest or yield solely for holding a payment stablecoin. It preserves rewards tied to actual activity, including payments, transfers, exchange, settlement and liquidity provision. The SEC, CFTC and Treasury would have one year after enactment to jointly write implementing rules.
Banks want tighter limits on stablecoin rewards, while crypto platforms want to preserve trading and usage incentives. The September draft does not settle that dispute.
The ethics provision also keeps the July approach. Public officials, federal employees and their spouses would be barred during their service from issuing or sponsoring digital assets in exchange for consideration, though they could still hold digital assets as investments. Violations could be pursued only through civil actions brought by the U.S. attorney general. State attorneys general and private parties would not be allowed to sue. The restriction would expire at noon on Jan. 20, 2029.
Democrats including Elizabeth Warren had previously pushed to broaden both the scope of the rule and the list of parties able to enforce it. The revised draft does not make major changes there.
The Sept. 15 procedural vote will decide whether the bill moves forward
In July, seven Democratic senators including Mark Warner, Cory Booker and Ruben Gallego said provisions on official ethics, consumer protection, illicit finance, conflicts of interest and market integrity still needed to be strengthened.
If the bill fails to secure 60 votes on Sept. 15, H.R.3633 will remain in the Senate, and the SEC and CFTC would continue relying on their existing authorities to write rules separately. If the procedural vote succeeds, the Senate would still need to process amendments and hold a final vote.
Even if the Senate passes its version, differences with the House bill would remain. The House would then need to accept the Senate text or both chambers would have to negotiate a unified version before the measure could be sent to the president for signature. Most provisions are set to take effect 360 days after enactment, while sections that depend on implementing regulations would also have to wait until 60 days after final rules are published.