Senate Ag Sets Jan 27 Markup for CLARITY Act; BTC Holds $89k

The Lead

After months of legislative deadlock, the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee has formally scheduled a markup for the CLARITY Act on Tuesday, January 27, 2026. Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) released updated text for the bill, officially the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, signaling a Republican-led push to finalize the CFTC’s role in crypto oversight. Bitcoin ($BTC) shrugged off the partisan friction, holding steady at $89,453 (+0.06%) as the market prices in a CoinGeek-reported 50–60% probability of passage before the November midterms.

The Details

The updated 161-page draft arrives with a clear mandate: grant the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over “digital commodities” (like Bitcoin) while sidelining the SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement approach. However, the path is jagged. The text was released as a “Republican-only” draft after negotiations with Committee Democrats, led by Sen. Cory Booker, failed to produce a unified framework in time for the deadline.

Two critical friction points remain:

• Stablecoin Yields: While the Agriculture bill focuses on market structure, it must eventually reconcile with the Senate Banking Committee’s “Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.” The sticking point is a provision prohibiting “yield” on stablecoins, a clause banks favor to prevent deposit flight, but one crypto natives argue kills utility.
• DeFi Liability: Senate Judiciary leaders (Grassley and Durbin) have flagged concerns that broad exemptions for software developers could hamstring money laundering investigations, creating a new battlefront over non-custodial code liability.

Institutional Context

This markup is the first concrete step in 2026 to resolve the “jurisdictional war” between the SEC and CFTC. The urgency is driven by the looming midterms; failure to pass the bill before recess would likely shelve comprehensive crypto legislation for another two years. David Sacks, the White House Crypto Czar, framed the stakes explicitly on CNBC:

“After the market structure bill passes, banks are going to get fully into the crypto industry. It’s going to be one digital assets industry.”

What to Watch

Tuesday’s 3:00 PM EST markup will test Democratic resolve. If the bill advances on a party-line vote, it faces a steep climb in the full Senate, where 60 votes are required. Traders should monitor the “Intermediaries” definition. Any expansion that captures DeFi front-ends could trigger a sharp sell-off in governance tokens like Uniswap ($UNI) and Aave ($AAVE).