More Support Pours In
Shirzad made the case for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in a Fox Business interview on Wednesday, describing the legislation as “a dramatic advance in consumer protection and market integrity.” The appearance that comes as the bill nears its decisive stretch is part of an intensifying industry push ahead of an expected Senate floor vote.
The Coinbase executive called the bill a means of unlocking the exchange’s next act, adding:
CLARITY is the piece of legislation that gives us the regulatory certainty to offer those products to our customers. There’s an enormous move comprehensively across the financial system to move financial assets onchain.
The Clarity Act would create the first comprehensive federal framework for digital assets, dividing regulatory responsibilities between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It addresses how assets are classified, what issuers must disclose, and how trading platforms register, questions that have been litigated piecemeal for a decade.
The measure has been grinding through Congress for nearly a year. The House approved its version in July 2025, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced its draft by a 15-9 vote in May 2026. Negotiators released a merged text this week after roughly 10 months of talks, and the measure has been added to the Senate calendar, with floor action targeted for the week of July 20.
Passage requires 60 votes, and the Senate’s Aug. 7 recess leaves a narrow window because the bill already missed the White House’s July 4 target for a signing.
The Push and the Pushback
Momentum has been building from unusual directions, with President Donald Trump recently urging the Senate on July 13 to pass the bill, warning that China could seize the lead in crypto innovation, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association this week became the second law-enforcement endorsement of the measure.
Opposition remains concentrated among a group of Democrats led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has argued the bill is a ticket to sanctions evasion because of exemptions for certain non-custodial services. Shirzad has rejected that sort of posturing, arguing the bill would place crypto platforms under Bank Secrecy Act duties, including anti-money laundering programs and customer verification. “This isn’t a free pass for crypto,” he said earlier this month, calling the measure “a strict security mandate.”
Ethics rules, stablecoin rewards and developer protections were the last disputes still open as staff finalized the merged draft, according to reports last week. The next step is the floor vote itself, where the bill’s bipartisan committee support faces its broader test. Shirzad has predicted the votes are there, pointing to the roughly 80 House Democrats who backed the earlier version. With three working weeks left before recess and midterm politics closing in behind it, the Clarity Act is finally down to the only count that matters, i.e. 60.
