Coinbase CEO Says Crypto Bill Could Restore US Dollars – Senate Votes Thursday
A long-stalled crypto market structure bill is moving through Congress with renewed momentum — and Coinbase’s CEO says it could overhaul America’s financial system.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced his company’s support for the Digital Assets Clarification Act on Wednesday, calling the legislation a “true compromise” that balances the interests of the crypto industry against the interests of the traditional banking sector and shows that the bill is in the best shape it has seen since negotiations began.
The statements, via Fox News, came as the Senate Banking Committee prepared to hold its CLARITY Act markup on May 14, the committee’s first formal vote on the legislation in the Senate after months of procedural delays and two canceled marks.
Committee Chairman Tim Scott has set a target of June or July 2026 for a full Senate vote, and the White House has marked July 4 as its target for a presidential signature.
The legal race continues
The CLARITY Act — officially HR 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 — cleared the House of Representatives on July 17, 2025, by a bipartisan vote of 294–134, with all 216 House Republicans in favor and 78 Democrats across the district.
Since then, the bill has been sitting in the Senate Banking Committee through two canceled markups, extended stablecoin negotiations, and a growing lobbying battle between crypto firms and Wall Street banks.
At its core, the law draws a regulatory line between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Futures Trading Commission.
Under the bill, the CFTC would hold exclusive jurisdiction over the real estate and currency markets of digital assets while the SEC would have jurisdiction over investment contract instruments and capital markets. Stablecoins are recorded as a separate category under shared supervision.
The Senate version of the bill expanded beyond the House text, growing to nine articles including decentralized financial protection, illegal financial provisions, bankruptcy protections for crypto customers, and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, which creates safe harbors for software developers who publish code without controlling customer funds.
Stablecoin exchange
A highly debated bill offering focused on stablecoin yields. Banks have warned that allowing crypto platforms to pay rewards in stablecoin balances will cause flight deposits in traditional bank accounts and threaten lending operations. Crypto firms, led by Coinbase, argue that the restrictions will give banks a competitive advantage and deprive Americans of new financial tools.
The disagreement led to a compromise created by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD). Under the final language in Section 404 of the bill, stablecoin issuers and related digital asset service providers cannot pay interest on balances if that interest is equivalent to the performance or economics of bank interest.
Performance-based rewards – reimbursement on fees, transaction-based incentives, and trade-related rewards – are always allowed. A passive stablecoin owner does not return.
Armstrong confirmed his support after the compromise text became public, with Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad declaring the industry was “protecting what’s important.”
Speaking on Fox, Armstrong praised Senators Tillis, Alsobrooks, and their staff for bringing both sides to the table. “I have to give a lot of credit to Senators Brooks and Tillis and their staff for their hard work on this,” he said.
Armstrong described the financial sector as rapidly approaching digital asset integration.
“I go around and talk to many different bank officials, and many of them rely on this as an opportunity to grow their businesses,” he said. “They’re putting stablecoins together as fast as they can.”
More than 100 crypto firms and industry groups, including the Crypto Council for Innovation and the Blockchain Association, wrote to the Senate Banking Committee in April urging the panel to move forward with the bill, warning that continued delays risk pushing innovation and capital out of the United States.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reinforced that call, telling the Senate panel that the legislation is necessary to protect the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.
Thursday’s mark is not the finish line. If the Banking Committee approves the bill, it must be combined with a version passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee on a 12-11 caucus vote in January 2026.
A full Senate vote requires 60 votes, making Democratic support a practical necessity and leaving the ongoing battle over the ethics provisions — particularly language addressing President Trump and his family’s cryptoholdings — as the bill’s biggest remaining flaw.
