The independent guide to the CLARITY Act — and what it means for crypto
Plain-English breakdowns, a live legislative tracker, and a free tool to help you understand where the U.S. Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act stands today — and what changes if it becomes law.
What is the CLARITY Act, in plain English?
The CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633) is a proposed U.S. federal law that would create the first comprehensive market-structure framework for crypto — splitting oversight between the SEC and CFTC, defining when a token is a "digital commodity" rather than a security, and setting registration, custody, and disclosure rules for exchanges, brokers, and dealers. As of August 19, 2026, it has passed the House but has not yet passed the Senate or been signed into law.
Right now, U.S. crypto oversight is split awkwardly between overlapping agencies and decades-old securities law never written with blockchains in mind. The CLARITY Act tries to fix that by giving the CFTC clear authority over "digital commodity" spot markets, keeping the SEC focused on investment contracts and fraud, and laying out a path for tokens to graduate out of securities treatment as their underlying network matures. For the full walkthrough, see What Is the CLARITY Act?, go deeper with our section-by-section breakdown, or jump straight to which coins it actually affects.
Everything you need to understand the CLARITY Act
Eleven focused pages, each built to answer one part of the question — from "what is this bill" to "am I affected."
What Is the CLARITY Act?
The plain-English explainer: what problem it solves, who wrote it, and why it matters even before it passes.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
The detailed policy analysis — SEC vs. CFTC jurisdiction, registration rules, disclosure requirements, and the compliance timeline.
Which Coins Does It Affect?
Bitcoin, Ethereum, altcoins, stablecoins, DeFi tokens, and NFTs — coin by coin, what changes and what doesn't.
CLARITY Act vs. MiCA vs. UK
How the still-pending U.S. bill compares to the EU's already-enforced MiCA framework and the UK's new FCA regime — regulators, stablecoin rules, and licensing.
Timeline & Updates
The full legislative journey to date, with a running, dated log of what's changed — our live source of truth.
Free Token Classification Quiz
Answer a few questions about a token or project and get an educational read on how it might be treated.
FAQ
Fast, direct answers to the questions people actually search — has it passed, what does CLARITY stand for, and more.
Glossary
28 key terms defined clearly — digital commodity, mature blockchain system, qualified custodian, and more.
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Is your token a security or a commodity?
Our free Token Classification Quiz walks through the same factors the CLARITY Act uses to separate "digital commodities" from securities — control, decentralization, and how the token was sold. It's educational, not a legal determination, but it's a genuinely useful starting point for builders and investors trying to get oriented.
Start the free quiz →What the quiz covers
- How centralized control over the project is today
- Whether the token was sold as an investment contract
- Signals tied to the bill's "mature blockchain system" test
- A plain-English result with links to the relevant sections
Recent developments
Bill briefly drops off the Senate schedule, then restarts
The CLARITY Act unexpectedly vanished from the Senate floor schedule, then the Senate opened a first procedural stage of voting days later to keep it alive for the fall.
August recess deadline passes without a vote
The bill missed the widely watched pre-recess window; Majority Leader Thune has since filed a motion to proceed.
September 2026 floor vote
Now the expected window for a Senate floor vote, needing roughly 7–10 Democratic crossovers to reach the 60 votes required for cloture.