The White House is still hopeful that the CLARITY Act can be advanced, but it still appeared mad at Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong for withdrawing its support for the crypto bill.
In a statement, Patrick Witt, Executive Director, President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, said,
“There will be a crypto market structure bill — it’s a question of when, not if.”
On the contentious issues that stalled the bill’s momentum last week, Witt called for a compromise and added,
“Let’s keep working to improve the product, recognizing that compromises will need to be made in order to get 60 votes in the Senate, but let’s not let perfect be the enemy of the good.”
However, Trump’s advisor didn’t miss the opportunity to take a swipe at Coinase’s CEO’s ‘no bill is better than a bad bill’ stance.
He said that the Coinbase CEO’s stance was a ‘privilege’ because of Trump’s pro-crypto administration.
He warned that the industry could be forced to deal with even worse and ‘punitive’ legislation from Democrats if it fumbles the current opportunity.
Opposing views on the CLARITY Act
A section of industry leaders, such as Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse and issuers of tokenized products like Securitize’s Carlos Domingo, were okay with the Senate’s draft as it is.
But Armstrong decried a ban on stablecoin yield, tokenized stocks, and DeFi. Since the markup for the bill faltered last week, the outlook for its progress has been mixed.
According to Galaxy’s Mike Novogratz, the stablecoin yield issue may cost the bill, and he blamed banks and lawmakers supporting them.
“The dynamics of yield in the stablecoin bill are fascinating and might cost the bill. Politics over good policy. The big loser will be the US consumer.”
Market expectations on the CLARITY Act decline
As of writing, the next Senate markup schedule was not yet public. Although SEC Chairman Paul Atkins projected that the bill would be passed, the market became less optimistic after its momentum stalled last week.
Prediction site Polymarket placed a 50/50 chance for the bill’s passage last week. At press time, however, the odds of the bill becoming law in 2026 have dropped further to 40%.
It remains to be seen whether stakeholders will reach a consensus on the crypto market structure in January or Q1 2026.
Final Thoughts
- Trump’s crypto advisor blasted Coinbase’s ‘holdout’ on the bill and warned the industry could lose the window to get a ‘good’ bill.
- As of writing, the bill’s progress remained uncertain, with the market’s expectations dropping to 40%.
