Coinbase's Ryan VanGrack Says CLARITY Act Is 'On the One-Yard Line'
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Key Takeaways
Coinbase’s VanGrack says CLARITY Act momentum is unmistakable with passage imminent.
Three Democratic holdouts over ethics, Section 604, and stablecoin yield remain unresolved.
Lummis warns Congress will not get another shot at this until 2030.
Coinbase vice chair Ryan VanGrack said the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is “on the one-yard line” and that the momentum toward passage is “unmistakable,” as the House confirmed a hearing on the bill for Friday and Senator Cynthia Lummis warned that this legislative window will not come around again this decade.
BREAKING: 🇺🇸 US HOUSE WILL HOST A HEARING ON THE CRYPTO CLARITY ACT ON FRIDAY, IN JUST 5 DAYS. pic.twitter.com/cptpktkDlu
The burst of activity marks a significant shift in the bill’s trajectory after it missed its July 4 signing target and sat stalled over three unresolved disputes heading into the Senate’s return from recess on July 13.
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H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, establishes a regulatory framework for digital commodities, placing CFTC oversight over secondary market trading of assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum while preserving SEC jurisdiction over initial offerings.
The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee in a 15-9 bipartisan vote in May 2026 and was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders on June 1, making it formally eligible for a floor vote.
With Republicans holding 53 seats, reaching the 60-vote cloture threshold required to break a filibuster demands at least seven Democratic crossover votes beyond the two Senators Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks, who joined Republicans in committee. That math has not changed. What has changed is the pace of pressure from both chambers simultaneously.
Coinbase Has Significant Regulatory Stakes in the CLARITY Act
VanGrack’s comments carry additional weight given Coinbase’s regulatory history. Before joining the company, he spent more than a decade at the US Department of Justice, including as chief of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. He now serves as Vice Chairman at Coinbase.
Coinbase vice chair Ryan VanGrack on the passage of the CLARITY Act. | Source: @CoinMarketCap
Coinbase has more at stake in the CLARITY Act than most crypto firms. The exchange received an SEC Wells notice in March 2023 before the agency sued the company in June that year, alleging it had operated an unregistered securities exchange.
The CLARITY Act would establish a statutory framework assigning secondary trading of sufficiently decentralized digital assets to CFTC oversight, addressing many of the legal uncertainties that have surrounded Coinbase’s business.
No CEO or company has fought harder for effective crypto regulation than @brian_armstrong and @coinbase.
I'm thrilled to be taking the helm as Vice Chair to ensure Coinbase's gold standard for digital assets dominates globally.
Although the SEC dismissed its lawsuit against Coinbase in February 2026, the broader question of which digital assets qualify as securities remains unresolved without legislation. Passage of the CLARITY Act would provide a clearer legal framework for exchanges, issuers, and investors by replacing case-by-case enforcement with federal law.
Three Fights Still Blocking Cloture
Three disputes have held up the Democratic votes needed for floor passage. President Trump‘s June financial disclosure showing approximately $1.4 billion in crypto-related income during his first year back in office transformed an abstract ethics debate into a concrete conflict-of-interest fight, with Democrats demanding enforceable recusal provisions for officials with significant crypto holdings before they will commit to floor votes.
Section 604 of the bill, which would shield software developers from money transmitter liability for crimes committed by users of their decentralized protocols, has drawn opposition from four law enforcement organizations and nearly 100 Catholic leaders, arguing the provision creates dangerous enforcement gaps.
Senators Mark Warner and Catherine Cortez Masto have made their floor votes conditional on law enforcement signing off on that language, a condition that has not yet been met.
Stablecoin yield restrictions represent the third sticking point, with disagreement persisting over whether activity-based rewards on idle stablecoin balances constitute prohibited interest payments under the bill’s current compromise text.
Lummis Pushes August Deadline as Bitcoin Watches CLARITY Act
Lummis posted on July 11 that “momentum like this will not come around again this decade,” a statement that carried weight given her role as chair of the Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets and her years of direct involvement in drafting the bill.
The Clarity Act is the closest Congress has ever come to real digital asset market structure. Momentum like this will not come around again this decade.
Her warning echoes earlier statements that a failure to pass before the August 7 recess could push the next realistic legislative window to 2030, as midterm campaign pressures consume the fall calendar.
As of July 13, Polymarket market participants remain cautious about the bill’s prospects. On Polymarket, the contract asking whether the CLARITY Act will be signed into law by December 31, 2026, is trading at 46%, implying the market sees passage as slightly less likely than not.
The contract has attracted more than $1.6 million in trading volume, reflecting continued uncertainty over whether Congress can pass the legislation before the end of the year.
Bitcoin has responded to legislative signals throughout the bill’s progress, briefly touching $81,000 on the day of the May 14 committee vote before retracing as passage uncertainty returned.
Citi has tied its $143,000 base-case Bitcoin target directly to the passage of the CLARITY Act, projecting $15 billion in additional net ETF inflows once the bill clears Congress.
Friday’s House hearing does not move the Senate vote count directly, but it signals that both chambers are treating the pre-recess window as live rather than symbolic, and that the industry’s most prominent compliance voices are publicly betting on resolution before August 7.
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Dr. Guneet Kaur is a senior editor at CCN.com and a Science Fellow at Exponential Science. She is a fintech and blockchain expert with extensive experience in digital finance education, blockchain ecosystems, and cryptocurrency markets. She has worked with global media such as Cointelegraph, as well as education and blockchain platforms, to design and lead strategic content and learning initiatives. As an educator and assessor for top-tier executive programs, she bridges real-world fintech trends with academic insight.
Dr. Kaur is also a published researcher and peer reviewer across fintech and data science journals, including Financial Innovation Journal and International Journal of Big Data Intelligence and Applications. Her work spans data-driven analysis, Web3 innovation, and technical content development. With a strong foundation in both industry and academia, she translates complex financial technologies into practical applications, empowering learners, professionals, and institutions across the rapidly evolving digital finance landscape.
