The CLARITY Act's rewritten Senate text gives Bitcoin specific legal protections — self-custody rights and a path for banks to hold it — but stops short of the "bull run catalyst" some traders expect. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, meanwhile, is pushing Congress to change the bill's stablecoin provisions before it becomes law.
The Senate Banking Committee's rewrite of the CLARITY Act struck out the entire 256-page House-passed bill and replaced it with new text starting on page 257. That overhaul reshapes what the bill actually does for Bitcoin, apart from the broader crypto market it also covers.
Self-custody and bank access get statutory backing
Section 605, the "Keep Your Coins Act," prohibits federal regulators from restricting a person's ability to self-custody for any lawful purpose, closing a gap regulators have probed before. Section 604 gives non-controlling developers immunity from money-transmitter liability, addressing the theory used to prosecute Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash's Roman Storm.
Section 401 lets banks, brokerages, and credit unions custody, lend against, and trade digital assets without extra prior approval. US commercial banks alone hold $25.7 trillion in total assets, nearly 20 times Bitcoin's entire $1.3 trillion market cap.
Commodity status and a CBDC ban are still missing
The bill doesn't lock Bitcoin's commodity status into federal law — that classification still rests on CFTC precedent rather than statute, since the House language that would have codified it was struck from the Senate rewrite. The Senate version also drops the House's ban on a Federal Reserve retail CBDC.
Citigroup pushes to rewrite the stablecoin provisions
Away from Bitcoin's provisions, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser is pressing Congress for changes to the bill she otherwise supports. Her concern is that reward mechanisms tied to stablecoin transactions could drain deposits from banks bound by reserve requirements. Stablecoin issuers might not face those same constraints, at least not yet. The Senate Banking Committee passed the bill in May 2026 by a 15-9 vote, and Fraser called a properly revised version "a very positive outcome for the entire system."
Regulators aren't ready even if the bill passes
Even a signed bill wouldn't have working rules attached right away. The GENIUS Act missed its entire one-year rulemaking deadline across six federal agencies, and the CFTC, which would take on CLARITY's biggest new mandate, currently has a single sitting commissioner after its staff headcount dropped 21% in one year.
Sources: Bitcoin Magazine, Crypto Briefing
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