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The cryptocurrency industry scored a significant victory after a Senate panel on Thursday approved the Clarity Act, the first comprehensive legislation related to the new industry.
The Senate Banking Committee voted largely along party lines, 15-9, with Democratic senators Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland joining with all Republicans on the panel to vote for the bill.
Given powerful opposition and the fact that it must be cleared by the full Senate as well as the House before it goes to President Donald Trump’s desk, the measure will have a long way to go before it becomes law.
During the hearing, both Republicans and Democrats committed to continuing to work through areas of disagreement, including ensuring that how bad actors using digital assets are caught and the issue of elected officials like Trump profiting from crypto is addressed in ethical language.
Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., one of several Democrats who worked with Republicans on the bill, said that while he had been in “crypto hell these past few months,” he hopes to continue working on the bill and “reach crypto heaven.”
“I feel like I’m in crypto purgatory right now, but I’m looking forward to getting there,” he said.
Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, speaks during a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on June 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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R.S.C. Tim Scott, president of the Cryptocurrency Exchange, said it is important to move the measure forward to provide guidance and standards for the crypto industry.
“For years, the digital frontier was stuck in a regulatory gray zone,” Scott said during the hearing. “Developers, entrepreneurs and investors faced uncertainty. They faced confusion and enforcement actions, when instead, the government should have laid out clear rules of the road.”
The bill was supported by several crypto companies, including coinbaseCircle and Ripple, who want to see some degree of regulation and oversight of their industry to help incentivize investors. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is another major backer.
The White House has also pushed for the bill, at times becoming active in talks between banks and crypto groups. Trump and his family have made billions of dollars from meme coins and the cryptocurrency venture world Liberty Financial.
But the bill has opponents in the banking, law enforcement and labor union sectors.
The banking industry raised concerns that the measure could allow crypto groups to offer interest-like payments to stablecoin holders and lead to a reduction in bank deposits and a shortage of capital for loans. The crypto industry said the measure allows rewards only when stablecoins are spent.
law enforcement group Says the law is not enough to stop illicit financial transactions through digital assets and will make it harder to catch bad actors.
Major labor groups, including the AFL-CIO, warned senators that efforts to legalize crypto could jeopardize financial stability and, in turn, put retirement and pension accounts at risk.
During the committee meeting, Democratic senators offered amendments to address some of these issues, but either not all were voted down or Scott said they were not written correctly and did not allow them to be introduced.
If the bill is able to pass the full Senate, it would also need to be passed by the House, which approved a different version of the bill last fall.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Senator Angela Alsobrooks was one of two Democrats to vote for the bill. The previous version named only one Democrat.