CLARITY Act Progress: Key Markup Slipping Toward The Final Week Of April Or Mid-May

With Congress back from its Easter recess and optimism reportedly building during the week’s talks over the remaining sticking points in the CLARITY Act, attention has shifted to a new concern: the Senate Banking Committee markup appears to have been pushed back to the final week of April or, potentially, into mid-May. 

The delay has quickly become a major talking point, in part because the committee’s schedule, released by Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott for next week, did not include any CLARITY Act markup date. 

That absence fueled speculation on social media that the bill could effectively stall or even “die” if it fails to reach a vote by the end of the month.

CLARITY Act Markup Wait Continues

In response to those fears, Paradigm’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Justin Slaughter, argued that the supposed deadline pressure may be overstated. Slaughter said the real time crunch does not begin until after Memorial Day. 

On that basis, he suggested there is still a window of roughly six to seven weeks for the bill to move out of the Senate Banking Committee and proceed across the Senate floor.

Meanwhile, reporting from Eleanor Terrett of Crypto In America indicated that committee members and staff are still putting finishing touches on the bill. 

Sources involved in the negotiations point to ethics and tokenization as areas that remain under discussion. The same reporting suggests that other, more contentious topics—such as DeFi and stablecoin yield—have largely been addressed already, implying that the bill’s hardest political problems may not be the ones blocking it at the moment.

Senator Thom Tillis said on Monday he is aiming to release text describing the stablecoin yield compromise reached between banks and crypto firms sometime this week. Crypto In America reported, however, that the exact timing could still shift depending on when the CLARITY Act markup is ultimately scheduled. 

May As The Make-Or-Break Month

The committee delay also echoes a broader political forecast made earlier in the week by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, as reported by Bitcoinist. 

Garlinghouse pointed to May as the most important month to watch for passage of the CLARITY Act, arguing that the stablecoin yield dispute—one of the major hurdles since January—was approaching resolution. 

He framed the dynamic as one where compromise becomes more likely when parties reach a peak of frustration, telling reporters, “When people are at their peak frustration, that’s when they finally compromise, and it gets done,” and adding, “I think we’re there.”

Other figures in the administration have suggested similar momentum is developing beyond stablecoin yield alone. White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt reportedly said on April 13 that negotiations have produced meaningful progress on issues unrelated to stablecoin yield. 

Ultimately, the path forward for the CLARITY Act may depend on whether the stablecoin yield text is delivered soon and whether both sides accept the updated agreement. 

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com