DeutschThe US Senate is putting the CLARITY Act on hold again. The upper house has been failing to pass the important crypto law since July. Recently, Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong was outraged by changes that members of parliament had made to the law to the detriment of crypto and ended his support for the law.
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CLARITY Act on hold: Is the US’s key crypto law failing?
The CLARITY Act is on hold – Crypto in America reports. The US Senate Finance Committee was actually supposed to agree on a final draft of the law yesterday, Thursday, but that didn’t happen – due to harsh criticism from the crypto scene.
Coinbase founder and current CEO Brian Armstrong made his criticism particularly clear. On Wednesday, the 42-year-old warned in an X post about the latest version of the law, which the Finance Committee had only published at the beginning of the week.
It contains several dozen changes compared to previous versions. Some points are serious – too serious for Armstrong. Until now, he had supported the work on the CLARITY crypto law. On Wednesday, he publicly announced the end of this support.
“After reviewing the Finance Committee draft over the last 48 hours, Coinbase unfortunately cannot support the bill in its current form,” Armstrong wrote.
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He argued his departure with four different points. He cannot support CLARITY practically prohibiting tokenized stocks, imposing DeFi bans and wanting to pass its user data on to state authorities.
Armstrong also believes that the previously shared supervision between the SEC and CFTC is being shifted back in favor of the SEC. The payment of returns for invested stablecoins would be prevented.
“This version would be significantly worse than the status quo. We would rather have no law than a bad law. Hopefully we can work together to develop a better draft,” the US American continues.
In another comment, he affirms his confidence. Armstrong is optimistic that CLARITY can still receive an appropriate legal text.
Originally intended as a fundamental crypto law that would ensure legal certainty when using cryptocurrencies, the regulation has transformed in the US Senate. In the meantime, it is said to assure state authorities of powers or to issue bans for certain applications of crypto.
Crypto law is a gift to banks, Armstrong criticizes
In an interview with CNBC, Brian Armstrong specified his criticism of the latest CLARITY version. In this form, the bill is a gift to banks, he criticizes. According to this, they have successfully tried to influence senators in order to protect their own industry through CLARITY.
“We cannot allow banks to influence this law in order to eliminate their competitors. Citizens should receive more money for their reserves. Stablecoins offer a good option for this,” Armstrong explained.
Because savings accounts in the USA only pay out 0.14 percent interest on customer deposits, returns on invested stablecoins are now to be prohibited by means of CLARITY. The tokens allow returns of up to 3.80 percent, Armstrong argues. For him, that’s a scandal.
“If that is supposed to be a gift to the banks, then I’d rather stick with GENIUS, which has already been passed,” he summarized, referring to a successfully passed stablecoin law.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson also recently criticized CLARITY. Actually the most important crypto law, this could miss its effect. The US House of Representatives already passed its version in July, but the draft never became law due to disputes within the Senate.
The problem: Because of the upcoming midterm elections, the legislation is under pressure. The elections could mess up the balance of power and possibly blow up CLARITY or at least delay it until 2029. The implications for the crypto market would be enormous.
