2026 CLARITY Act Latest Summary: Registration Exemptions, Stablecoin Passive Income, and Other Key Points at a Glance

The U.S. Senate has introduced the CLARITY Act, which establishes the classification of token commodities and places them under the oversight of the CFTC. The bill sets up registration exemptions and a developer safety harbor, while also safeguarding users’ interests in self-custody wallets and customer bankruptcy rights.

Ending securities classification disputes, with a tailored registration exemption mechanism

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee has officially put forward the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (the “CLARITY Act”), seeking to draw a line under years of tangled regulatory uncertainty for cryptocurrencies.

The introduction of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act injects a shot of confidence into the U.S. crypto market, which has been full of uncertainty. For a long time, whether tokens are securities or commodities has remained a focal point of ongoing debate between the industry and regulators. Now, the bill clearly establishes a rebuttable presumption principle—network tokens are defaulted to be commodities, placing core jurisdiction with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) retains authority to combat fraud and market manipulation.

The bill also introduces a highly anticipated crypto regulatory (Regulation Crypto) registration exemption framework for token issuers. In the past, crypto startups often shied away from public markets due to the high cost of compliance.

Under the new bill, if issuers of Ancillary Assets meet the information disclosure requirements both initially and once every six months, they may raise funds from the general public without the burden of fully complying with traditional public offering securities regulations. The annual funding limit for this exemption mechanism is $50,000,000 or 10% of the total value of the outstanding tokens (whichever is greater), and the absolute total amount raised by any single issuer may not exceed $200,000,000.

To further protect the market, the bill requires issuers to demonstrate that they have not concealed material non-public information, and to prevent malicious dumping by senior executives through strict internal insider sell-off limits—ensuring that everyday investors can participate safely in the early digital asset market.

Developer safety harbor and an exit route for non-fungible tokens

For blockchain infrastructure and software engineers at the foundation layer, the bill provides a clear legal protection umbrella. In the past, developers have always worried that simply writing code or operating nodes could be viewed by regulators as unregistered money transmitters (Money Transmitter) or securities brokers. The newly established blockchain regulatory certainty provisions explicitly state that software developers and non-controlling nodes that merely provide computing work, verify network transactions, or maintain distributed ledger services will be exempt from the cumbersome money transmitter regulatory requirements. This significantly reduces legal risk during the technical development stage, allowing engineers to focus on breakthroughs in core technology.

The bill also establishes safety harbor provisions for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). As long as the NFT does not involve the essence of an investment contract, its issuance and secondary-market transactions will be freed from the tight grip of securities issuance.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been instructed to conduct in-depth research into the size and risks of the relevant markets. The Keep Your Coins Act provisions reiterate the core spirit of cryptocurrencies, explicitly requiring that federal agencies may not ban or restrict the public’s use of self-custody wallets (Self-hosted Wallets) to store personal assets—ensuring the continuation of decentralization.

For the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, the bill promotes a voluntary network security standards initiative led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the United States. It encourages developers to proactively accept code audits in exchange for meaningful compliance recognition and endorsement marks. This mechanism will help eliminate poorly built malicious projects, and establish higher security standards for the entire DeFi ecosystem.

Plugging illegal financing loopholes and banning passive yield on stablecoins

While making room for innovation, the CLARITY Act strikes back hard against money laundering and illegal financing. Crypto currency kiosks (Kiosk / ATM) will face strict federal-level regulatory bottom lines, including mandatory anti-fraud mechanisms, establishing a customer service hotline, applying transaction limits of up to $3,500 per day for new customers, and a 72-hour wallet transfer cool-down period.

Digital asset brokers, dealers, and exchanges are also comprehensively brought under the Bank Secrecy Act, requiring strict implementation of anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) procedures. This demonstrates regulators’ determination to crack down on crypto-related crimes, with the intent to thoroughly drive wrongdoers out of the digital asset ecosystem.

Regarding integration with traditional finance, the bill authorizes financial holding companies and national banks to engage in digital asset custody, trading, and lending business. For payment stablecoins aimed at U.S. customers, the bill sets extremely strict red lines: it completely prohibits issuers or service providers from paying customers passive interest or interest-like yield on stablecoin balances.

Users can still receive rewards by engaging in real activities such as participating in network governance or staking. Simply leaving stablecoins idle in an account to earn interest using traditional finance practices is legally prohibited. This is intended to protect the deposit base of the traditional banking system, prevent potential systemic risks, and the Treasury must also submit a comprehensive risk tracking report for offshore stablecoins that rely on U.S. Treasury securities.

Strengthening customer bankruptcy protection and a cross-agency micro-innovation sandbox

After the painful lessons brought by the collapse of several large cryptocurrency exchanges in the past, the bill fundamentally revises customer asset protection mechanisms.

Going forward, digital commodities and ancillary assets in the liquidation proceedings under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Act will be formally recognized as Customer Property, enjoying the same level of protection as traditional securities. This reform ensures that when digital asset intermediaries go bankrupt, users’ crypto assets must be returned first to general customers, eliminating the risk of being treated as liquidation assets of the company. SEC and CFTC must require brokers to provide investors with clear, written disclosures detailing the disposition process in the event of bankruptcy.

To resolve the long-standing deadlock of “two-horse carriage” regulatory oversight, the bill requires that the two major agencies sign a memorandum of understanding and establish a joint digital asset advisory committee composed of official and academic experts. Both sides will jointly implement a Micro-Innovation Sandbox program. New startups that meet the conditions, have a total employee count not exceeding 25, and have annual revenue below $10,000,000 are allowed to test cutting-edge digital asset services in this sandbox.

Sandbox participants may receive up to a 2-year compliance grace period and access up to $20,000,000 in funding-raising capacity. Through this flexible testing framework, regulators can build solid data and legislative foundations for the long-term development of the crypto market, while maintaining market integrity.