Senators convene for bipartisan crypto meeting ahead of Thursday vote

The Senate Banking Committee is gearing up for a Thursday markup of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a bill that promises to finally give crypto a coherent regulatory home in the US. But before the vote, senators from both parties are huddling to hash out a question that has dogged this legislation from the start: can you write the rules for an industry when the people writing them might also be profiting from it?

What the bill actually does

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is designed to create a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto assets. It would establish clear lines between which tokens the SEC oversees, which fall under the CFTC, and how companies can operate without playing a perpetual guessing game about which federal agency might come knocking.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has voiced support for the legislation, arguing it could transform the US financial system and fundamentally alter how Americans interact with money and markets.

The ethics problem no one can agree on

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has emerged as the bill’s most vocal critic, and her objections center on a specific number: $1.4 billion. That’s the amount she alleges President Trump and his family have profited from crypto investments. Her argument is straightforward. A bill that creates regulatory clarity for digital assets without including provisions to prevent conflicts of interest among elected officials is, at best, incomplete.

Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy group, has pushed for outright prohibitions on elected officials’ crypto ventures. Their position is that approving market structure legislation without ethics measures would essentially codify a system where the people setting the rules can also play the game.

Recent closed-door negotiations attempted to establish some form of ethics guidelines. Those talks failed.

The markup and what’s at stake

The Senate Banking Committee markup is scheduled for May 14, 2026. A markup is when committee members go through a bill line by line, propose amendments, and vote on whether to send it to the full Senate.

The key amendments to watch will center on conflict-of-interest provisions. Can supporters of the bill accept guardrails that prevent officials from personally benefiting from the regulatory framework they’re creating? And can critics accept a bill that moves the industry forward even if it doesn’t include every safeguard they want?

How the bill draws jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC will determine which types of companies have structural advantages going forward, adding another layer to the competition between traditional banks and crypto-native firms.