CLARITY Act
The CLARITY Act (the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act) is the US market structure bill that establishes the formal classification framework for digital assets, advanced by the Senate Banking Committee on a 15-9 vote on May 14, 2026, and operationalized through the March 17, 2026 SEC/CFTC joint interpretation's five-bucket taxonomy.
The CLARITY Act establishes the formal classification framework for digital assets in the United States. Where the GENIUS Act regulates the issuance of dollar substitutes, CLARITY regulates the classification of every other digital asset. The Senate Banking Committee advanced the bill on a 15-9 vote on May 14, 2026, moving the broader market structure legislation closer to law.
The classification framework was operationalized by the March 17, 2026 SEC/CFTC joint interpretation, which codified a five-bucket taxonomy: digital commodities (CFTC jurisdiction), payment stablecoins (OCC/state), digital securities (SEC), and two unregulated categories, digital collectibles and digital tools. This taxonomy is the structural core of what CLARITY does.
For Bitcoin, CLARITY is consequential. Bitcoin sits in the digital commodity category, in the same regulatory bucket as gold or oil, under CFTC jurisdiction, with no securities law overhang, no issuer to regulate, and no yield mechanism to ban. For the first time in Bitcoin's history, US federal law explicitly separates Bitcoin from "crypto," removing it from the same regulatory category as Ethereum, Solana, or any token that depends on an issuer or platform.
CLARITY also resolved the political fight over stablecoin rewards that GENIUS left open. The CLARITY Act compromise emerged in May 2026 after four months of negotiations between Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks. It prohibits rewards offered "in a manner that is economically or functionally equivalent to the payment of interest or yield on an interest-bearing bank deposit," while explicitly preserving activity-based rewards tied to platform usage, transaction volume, or network participation. Passive yield is banned; activity-based rewards are permitted.
The bill is not yet law. The Senate floor vote is the next milestone. Polymarket assigns a 64% probability of Trump signing CLARITY by year-end, while industry observers including GSR's chief legal officer assign closer to 50% odds. The banking lobby has not endorsed the compromise; the American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, Independent Community Bankers of America, and other trade groups argue that activity-based rewards remain functionally equivalent to deposit interest and risk catalyzing deposit flight from the regulated banking system.
For institutional allocators, the report identifies the structural unlock: the regulatory uncertainty that has constrained pension fund participation in Bitcoin since 2017 is now resolved. The CFTC's principle-based approach is substantially more accommodating to commodities than the SEC's disclosure-based approach to securities. Bitcoin ETFs were the proof of concept; CLARITY is the structural unlock for direct allocation.
Related Reading
Onramp's Stablecoin Stack uses this term this way: The CLARITY Act is the US market structure bill that establishes the formal classification framework for digital assets. It was advanced by the Senate Banking Committee on a 15-9 vote on May 14, 2026, and is operationalized through the March 17, 2026 SEC/CFTC joint interpretation's five-bucket taxonomy: digital commodities (CFTC), payment stablecoins (OCC/state), digital securities (SEC), and two unregulated categories. It places Bitcoin in.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CLARITY Act?
Onramp's Stablecoin Stack uses this term this way: The CLARITY Act is the US market structure bill that establishes the formal classification framework for digital assets. It was advanced by the Senate Banking Committee on a 15-9 vote on May 14, 2026, and is operationalized through the March 17, 2026 SEC/CFTC joint interpretation's five-bucket taxonomy: digital commodities (CFTC), payment stablecoins (OCC/state), digital securities (SEC), and two unregulated categories. It places Bitcoin in.
Why does CLARITY Act matter?
It matters because the Stablecoin Stack separates regulated digital-dollar velocity from Bitcoin's base-layer monetary role. Onramp uses that distinction to explain where custody, issuer control, and regulatory classification affect institutional capital.
How does CLARITY Act relate to Bitcoin custody?
It relates to custody because Bitcoin's digital-commodity role only helps allocators if the asset is held without a single-party control point. Onramp's Multi-Institution Custody distributes control across Onramp, BitGo Trust, and CoinCover.