The proposed H.R.3633 - Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 is set to undergo a markup vote tomorrow morning, May 14, 2026. There are over 100 changes that are being thrown around between government officials, specifically the Senate Banking Committee. While the House passed the proposed bill last July, the American Bankers Association is lobbying for the last-minute changes.

It is expected to become U.S. law sometime this summer, but a few things have to happen first:

• Bill must clear Senate Banking Committee markup session on May 14, 2026
• Full Senate Floor vote, June 2026
• House Re-Approval/Reconciliation, June 2026
• Presidential Signature: a July 4, 2026 target date has been announced to coincide with the United States' 250th Independence Day

In its current form, the Clarity Act breaks digital assets down into five categories to determine which U.S. agency oversees it:

1. Digital Commodities fall under CFTC oversight. These include tokens that are linked to a functioning, decentralized blockchain and includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Cardano, Avalanche, Chainlink, Litecoin and Polkadot.

2. Digital Securities fall under SEC oversight and include things like tokenized corporate equity (shares of a company), tokenized real estate funds, and digital government bonds.

3. Stablecoins fall under the joint oversight of the SEC & CFTC. Examples of these stablecoins are Tether (UDST), USD Coin (USDC), PayPal USD (PYUSD), World Liberty Financial USD (USD1), and EURC (issued by Circle, pegged 1:1 to the Euro).

4. Digital Tools are exempt from heavy financial market registrations and oversight. Digital tools include things like digital event tickets, on-chain profressional credentials/ID badges, and on-chain representations of property ownership such as vehicle titles or property titles. 

5. Digital Collectibles are also exempt. These are defined as a unique collectibles secured on a blockchain such as in-game items (think skins, avatars, virtual trading cards), digital artwork or music (NFTs), and meme coins.

Meme Coins Can Trigger the Howey Test

The Howey Test is legal framework used by U.S. regulators to determine if a transaction qualifies as an "investment contract." The test was created in 1946. A transaction is considered an investment contract, and therefore must comply with SEC registration laws, if it meets all four of the following criteria:

• An investors commits capital - whether it be fiat currency or cryptocurrency - to the venture
• There is a common enterprise - funds from investors are pooled together
• There is a reasonable expectation of profit - the motivation for buyers is to attain financial returns i.e. gains
• Profits come from entrepreneurial/management efforts of others - the profits aren't coming from the work of investors themselves

So you can see how projects like the $HAWK memecoin, i.e. pump and dump meme coins with intense rugpulls, shouldn't happen under these new regulations. $HAWK hit nearly a $500 million market cap in a matter of hours, before falling over 90% in an equally short period of time. 

It almost makes me wonder if the meme coin creation site pump.fun will even exist in a few years. Don't get me wrong, I've gotten caught up in shitcoin trading myself. But for every big winner was at least two big losers. And it's pretty clear at this point that the only people really benefiting from such "projects" are the creators themselves, and maybe the occasional outside trader who happens to get lucky and be in the right trade at the right time. 

At any rate, I don't doubt that shitcoins will continue to exist but maybe they won't be as rampant as they have the past four years.

Self-Custody and Staking

So, what exactly would the Clarity Act becoming U.S. legislation do for individuals? It protects self-custody, retaining the rights of individuals to maintain independent hardware and software wallets and the continued right to engage in peer-to-peer crypto transactions. 

The bill would permanently remove the threat of regulatory crackdowns on staking, by declaring that staking rewards are not securities offerings. Staking rewards from solo staking become legal protocol incentives, instead of securities profits. Self-custody staking rewards (delegation), where rights are delegated to a third-party node operator, can continue to be earned. Exchange-facilitated staking services, such as earning staking rewards on Ethereum held on Coinbase, would be legalized if the Clarity Act becomes law.

What Does it All Mean for Crypto as a Whole?

If the Clarity Act passes the Senate, House re-approval, and is signed into law by the president, it would give businesses operating in the United States legal certainties when dealing with crypto, standard compliance requirements, and additional pathways to raise capital. For individuals, it may close the door on the "wild west" days of crypto and create a more regulated consumer environment. It aims to reduce fraudulent "rug pull" projects, expand access to crypto products through traditional brokerages and retail banks, and create safe harbors for crypto software developers.

As far as price, the speculation is that the Clarity Act becoming law would be a massive positive catalyst for crypto prices, potentially driving massive capital inflows. But we'll just have to wait and see on that front...

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