Senate Launches Crypto Bill, Building on House CLARITY Act

- Ambitious "Responsible Financial Innovation Act" introduced as Senate discussion draft. - Proposal builds on House "CLARITY Act" to define SEC-CFTC oversight roles. On July 22, 2025, Cointelegraph, The Block, and Punchbowl News reported that Republican leaders on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee unveiled a discussion draft of the "Responsible Financial Innovation Act." The move marks a pivotal effort to establish comprehensive regulations for digital assets in the United States. The Senate's initiative follows the House of Representatives' passage of the bipartisan "Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act," which passed on July 17 with support from 78 Democrats. The Senate's proposal now seeks to expand on this regulatory groundwork, as many considered the CLARITY Act a breakthrough for crypto market governance. The proposed legislation tackles fundamental regulatory challenges by amending securities laws and clarifying jurisdictional boundaries between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The draft introduces a new "ancillary asset" classification, a category that could define digital assets falling outside traditional securities oversight, and tasks the SEC with adjusting existing compliance frameworks to better suit digital asset activities. The CLARITY Act laid the foundation for this dual-agency oversight by assigning explicit roles to both the SEC and CFTC while mandating transparency requirements for companies in the crypto space. These efforts are part of a broader legislative trend in crypto governance. Other related measures include the "Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act," which enhances consumer protections and enforces stablecoin reserve standards, and the "CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act," which restricts the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency without congressional approval. Despite its significant bipartisan traction in the House, the Responsible Financial Innovation Act faces an uncertain path in the Senate, where lawmakers will likely debate its provisions. While congressional divisions may slow progress, key senators have expressed a commitment to finalizing crypto market reforms, aiming to complete these structural changes before October 2025. According to CoinMarketCap on July 23, market data at 12:00 UTC showed that Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $29,346, with its 24-hour trading volume increasing by 1.8%, while Ethereum (ETH) was priced at $1,892, marking a 0.9% rise over the same period.