Senate Republicans released a revised 630-page text of the Clarity Act on Thursday, adding registration rules for "non-decentralized finance trading protocols" ahead of a September 15 procedural vote. The bill still lacks Democratic support and leaves its contested ethics provisions largely unchanged.
Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Cynthia Lummis, released a 630-page revised text of the Clarity Act on Thursday, days before the bill's first procedural vote. The Senate will hold that vote on September 15 as it returns to Washington with limited time to advance the legislation.
New registration rules for non-DeFi protocols
The revised bill adds language covering "non-decentralized finance trading protocols" — entities that, acting alone or in concert, retain the authority to control or materially alter a decentralized finance protocol's functionality or consensus rules. Under the new version, those non-DeFi trading protocols would need to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the bill directs the CFTC and Treasury to write implementing rules. A crypto industry source told The Block the section was something Democrats wanted added.
Lawmakers also limited DeFi provisions to "spot and cash digital commodity transactions," which Lummis said addresses concerns tribal governments raised about the bill's effect on prediction markets. Lummis said clarifications were also made to how credit unions conduct crypto activities.
Ethics fight still unresolved
Despite the new registration language, the bill does not include significant changes to its ethics portion, and the Justice Department still holds lead enforcement authority rather than state attorneys general. In July, Trump agreed to an ethics provision barring public officials, employees and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, a measure set to expire in January 2029. Democrats called that language insufficient and, together with Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, sent an alternative version.
The dispute sits alongside broader friction over the treatment of stablecoin rewards and concerns about illicit finance, plus scrutiny of Trump's crypto holdings tied to World Liberty Financial and his TRUMP memecoin. According to The Block: "this bill is a strong bipartisan product," Lummis said in a statement. Yet Politico reported that the latest version does not have any support from Democrats, whose backing is crucial to passing the bill.
Lummis, who is not seeking another term and will leave Congress in January 2027, has pushed repeatedly on social media for the bill's passage, framing it as a chance for the United States to set its own digital-asset rules rather than cede that ground to other jurisdictions.
Source: The Block
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