U.S. Senator Jon Husted (R-OH) publicly backed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on July 28, arguing the bill is essential for U.S. leadership in digital assets, even as the legislation’s odds of becoming law in 2026 have slipped to just 30%.
Key Takeaways
Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) publicly endorsed the CLARITY Act in a post on X on July 28.Galaxy Research cut the CLARITY Act’s 2026 passage odds to 30%, down from a prior 50% estimate.The Senate has about two weeks before its August recess to pass the 616-page bill.If the U.S. is going to lead in digital assets, we need a framework that is clear, practical, and supports innovation and job creation here at home. That’s why I support the CLARITY Act and will work to get it passed as soon as possible.
The CLARITY Act, formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, would create the first comprehensive federal framework for crypto oversight, splitting jurisdiction between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The bill sorts tokens into three categories, hands the CFTC exclusive authority over spot markets for digital commodities, and leaves the SEC in charge of assets that still resemble securities. The House approved its version 294-134 in July 2025, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced its own draft 15-9 in May 2026, teeing up the current fight over a merged Senate text.
A Bill Still Stuck on EthicsHusted’s post lands at a fragile moment for the legislation as Senator Cynthia Lummis released a revised version of the bill on July 22, merging language from the Banking and Agriculture committees into a single negotiating text, but the core dispute holding up bipartisan support has not gone away.
The draft would bar the president, vice president, members of Congress, federal judges and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets for compensation while in office through January 2029, and would require covered officials to divest crypto holdings or place them in a blind trust. Democrats argue the safeguards still are not strict enough, while Republicans have pushed for looser language.
A delay of that scale could leave comprehensive crypto market structure rules unresolved well into 2027 or later, prolonging the regulatory uncertainty that companies like Coinbase and Ripple have lobbied against for years.
For now, Husted’s statement adds another Republican voice to the pressure campaign, but it does not change the math on the Senate floor. The ethics language remains the single biggest sticking point separating the two parties, ahead of secondary disputes over stablecoin rewards provisions and anti-money laundering rules that negotiators are still fine-tuning inside the merged text.
