The deadline for Senate Banking Committee members to file amendments to the CLARITY Act has passed. The final count is not confirmed but context suggests the number could match or exceed the 137 amendments filed ahead of January’s planned markup, which was ultimately scrapped. According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, the total submitted this time around is already over 100.
Thursday’s markup just got considerably more complicated.
Warren Goes to War
Senator Elizabeth Warren submitted more than 40 amendments on her own, the single largest individual contribution to the amendment pile. Her proposals cover a wide range of restrictions on the crypto industry but one stands out above the rest.
Warren filed an amendment that would prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing master accounts to crypto companies, a move that would effectively block crypto firms from accessing the primary plumbing of the US banking system regardless of what the CLARITY Act permits them to do.
Reed Forces a Binary Choice
Senators Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Tina Smith of Minnesota filed what may be the most politically dangerous amendment of all. The Reed-Smith amendment would incorporate the banking industry’s requested changes to stablecoin yield restrictions, specifically targeting rewards that are “substantially similar” to deposit interest.
According to Punchbowl News, the filing is designed to force every senator on the committee to make a binary public choice between the crypto industry and the banking industry. For bank-friendly Republicans, that vote lands in particularly uncomfortable territory.
Reed also filed a separate amendment explicitly prohibiting cryptocurrencies from being used as legal tender, including banning tax payments made in crypto assets. The amendment directly counters a bill introduced last year by Representative Warren Davidson that would have permitted Bitcoin to be used for exactly that purpose.
The Banking Lobby’s Ground Campaign
The amendment offensive does not exist in isolation. Since last Friday, American Bankers Association members have sent more than 8,000 letters to Senate offices urging lawmakers to tighten the stablecoin yield compromise, according to a source familiar with the effort. The letter campaign does not include a separate coordinated phone call effort, but the volume of direct constituent contact in under a week is significant by any measure.
What Thursday Actually Looks Like Now
The CLARITY Act markup begins Thursday at 10:30 AM EST with over 100 amendments on the table, a coordinated Democratic amendment strategy targeting the bill’s most sensitive provisions, 8,000 banking lobby letters sitting in Senate inboxes, and a Reed-Smith amendment designed specifically to fracture Republican unity.
The bill can still advance on a party-line vote. But a party-line vote weakens its chances of clearing the 60-vote threshold needed for full Senate passage.
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