CLARITY Act Stalls as Senate Postpones Thursday’s Markup Following Coinbase Backlash

The Senate Banking Committee has pushed back its meeting concerning the CLARITY Act amid the withdrawal of support from Coinbase. The meeting has now been rescheduled for a later date.

Senators Push CLARITY Act Meeting After Industry Response

As per an Eleanor Terrett report, the Senate has delayed its markup session that was set to take place on Thursday because of concerns expressed about the draft. Meanwhile, there is not yet any new schedule set to hold another meeting of legislators at this point in time.

The new meeting was expected to primarily focus on the latest version of the bill. The proposed legislation attempts to provide a regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States.

The news comes after a draft was released by the Senate Banking Committee after consultations with some Democratic senators.

To add, U.S Senator Cynthia Lummis also confirmed the postponement in a post on X. She stated that the response they got from top industry leaders was not favorable and hopes to work with them to fix the issues raised on the CLARITY ACT.

pic.twitter.com/6XMHvqJcVf

— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) January 15, 2026

For more context, there were stricter regulations related to yield-bearing crypto-assets. The new crypto bill is set to prohibit firms like Coinbase from offering any kind of reward to users. This is in line with restrictions mentioned in the GENIUS Act.

The changes listed above did not go well with companies that consider yield programs the key to innovation and competition in the digital asset industry.

Coinbase Pulls Support, Cites Concerns

After some analysis of the CLARITY Act draft, the exchange made it public that it could no longer support this in its present form. CEO Brian Armstrong posted on X that he had many reasons against this bill. He said it would place the industry in a worse position than it was in today.

After reviewing the Senate Banking draft text over the last 48hrs, Coinbase unfortunately can’t support the bill as written.

There are too many issues, including:

– A defacto ban on tokenized equities
– DeFi prohibitions, giving the government unlimited access to your financial…

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 14, 2026

Among these were an effective ban on tokenized equities and rules that may afford the government wide-ranging access to users’ financial information.

Armstrong was critical of proposed crypto bill regulations that will eliminate reward systems for certain stablecoins. The CEO of Coinbase did point out, however, that such proposals let large banks benefit by allowing them to suppress competition.

He did acknowledge the efforts of the legislators to reach a bipartisan solution. But he reiterated that he would rather have no solution than one that is flawed.

“We appreciate all the hard work by members of the Senate to reach a bi-partisan outcome, but this version would be materially worse than the current status quo. We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill. Hopefully we can all get to a better draft,” he said.

Also, the Senate Agriculture Committee delayed its plans for the markup of the CLARITY Act. The two committees now hope for a later opportunity to advance the matter.

Until now, Coinbase has always been one of the major supporters in facilitating the passage of the regulation. This new policy shifts that position. Meanwhile, Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s CEO, also commented on the situation, stating that it is time for the U.S. to lead on crypto policy.

He urged Congress to pass a CLARITY Act that protects consumers and unlocks innovation for everyone. Tenev added that his company supports Congress’ efforts to pass the crypto bill. However, he believes that there is still work to be done and is ready to help the Senate Banking Committee get it over the line.