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A closed Senate Republican meeting on crypto market structure today produced two stories. Eleanor Terrett, journalist and host at Crypto in America, reported both of them.
Terrett reported that Senator Cynthia Lummis told reporters after the meeting — which was attended by White House Crypto Council Executive Director Patrick Witt — that negotiations on stablecoin yield are making progress but remain in what Lummis described as a delicate state.
The focus, Lummis said, had shifted from finalising legislative text to identifying which stakeholders still needed to be brought on board. She told reporters she believed major light bulbs were switched on during the session, and that the path forward was not one she had expected when she walked in.
Witt, who emerged from the meeting looking frustrated, had no comment. Senator Tim Scott emerged smiling and declined to comment, noting he does not speak to reporters in the hallways.
Hours later, Terrett posted an update sourced directly from Lummis's press team with a more specific read on where things stand. Stablecoin yield negotiations are 99% of the way to resolution. The digital asset portions of the bill are in a good place. The remaining friction is not technical — it is political.
Terrett reported, and separately confirmed, that Senate Banking Republicans are now discussing attaching community bank deregulatory provisions to the CLARITY Act in exchange for the House accepting the Senate's housing package in its current form.
That proposal was raised in today's meeting.
That is a significant development. The CLARITY Act began as a digital asset market structure bill. It is now being drawn into a broader legislative trade involving housing policy and community bank regulation. Lummis's press team said she is working on resolving those housing and community banking issues. What that means for the timeline is unclear.
The broader picture coming out of this week's DC Blockchain Summit is that the CLARITY Act's core substantive disputes are largely resolved. The stablecoin yield compromise is nearly final. DeFi language has been addressed. The obstacle now is not the bill's content — it is the political packaging required to move it through a Senate calendar already crowded by geopolitical pressure, midterm dynamics, and unrelated legislative fights.
Senator Bernie Moreno warned this week that if the bill does not advance by May, digital asset legislation may not receive serious consideration again for years.
As FinTech Weekly reported, the Senate Banking Committee markup is the first of five sequential steps the bill must complete before it can reach the President's desk. A late April markup, as Lummis confirmed this week, leaves that five-step process with a very narrow window before the midterm election cycle begins to dominate the floor calendar.
Today's meeting moved the yield question close to done. It also added a new variable that did not exist this morning.
Editor's note: We are committed to accuracy. If you spot an error, a missing detail, or have additional information about any of the companies or filings mentioned in this article, please email us at [email protected]. We will review and update promptly.
