The fate of America’s current cryptocurrency market may hinge on a Senate vote expected this month, and few people are watching it more closely than Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase.
in interview On Fox Business Mornings with Maria earlier today, Shirzad explained that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — known as the CLARITY Act — represents the most significant financial regulatory legislation since the Dodd-Frank Act, and that legislation is within reach.
“This will be the largest financial regulatory bill passed by Congress in a long time, certainly since the Dodd-Frank Act,” Shirzad said. “What this does is it creates clarity for the cryptocurrency sector.”
The risks are high. Cynthia Lummis, Senator from Wyoming Issued Explicit warning on X on May 29, telling lawmakers that this Congress represents the final window for action. “The next window for digital asset legislation after this Congress will likely be 2030,” Loomis wrote. “Until then, developers remain exposed without any legal protections, and law enforcement remains without the tools to hold bad actors accountable. The Clarity Act solves both.”
Invoice to survey The Senate Banking Committee in a 15-9 vote on May 14, with Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland crossing party lines to support it. But full-floor voting is a different arithmetic. The bill needs 60 votes for Senate approval, and with the November midterm elections putting pressure on the legislative calendar, its approval period is measured in weeks.
Shirzad expressed his confidence that the numbers exist.
“The Republican caucus is fairly unified,” he said. “The president has put a lot of effort into this, and there’s a very large group of Democrats who want to get this done. We have about 80 Democrats in the House who voted for this, and I think we’ll get a proportionate number in the Senate.”
US government legislation supporting encryption
President Trump has made cryptocurrency regulation a priority for the White House, send on Truth Social with a pledge to codify a “future-proof” digital asset market – and his team is targeting a July 4 signing.
Shirzad framed the bill not as a battle between cryptocurrencies and banks, but as an expansion of opportunities for the traditional financial sector.
“This will be the first legislation since the 1990s that gives banks a new license to enter the cryptocurrency space,” he said. “I know JP Morgan wants to get into this space. Every other big bank wants to get into the crypto space. We welcome them to come in.”
Coinbase’s trust extends beyond legislation. The exchange scored a major regulatory win on May 29, when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued guidance that allowed Coinbase Financial Markets to connect US institutional clients to global cryptocurrency derivatives markets.
Coinbase Financial Markets has become the first CFTC-regulated futures commission merchant to provide local clients with access to global cryptocurrency options and options – instruments that represent approximately 80% of total global cryptocurrency trading volume. The exchange acquired derivatives platform Deribit, which holds more than $31 billion in open interest Bitcoin options, and began institutional setup immediately. Retail access is scheduled for a later date.
“This is a major regulatory opening,” Shirzad said. “It shows that US regulators are trying to do what the president said – which is to bring cryptocurrency markets to US soil.”
Regarding the state of the broader cryptocurrency market, Shirzad disputed any notion that large trades are falling behind investors.
“We are more bullish on cryptocurrencies as a technology,” he said, pointing to the integration of blockchain-based infrastructure across major banks and financial services companies. “Cryptocurrencies are now the accepted upgrade to the financial system.”
He described the coming era as “tokenized” — financial applications built on blockchain trails — with the CLARITY Act providing the legal foundation that would open up participation from both crypto-native companies and legacy institutions.
One immediate issue remains the provision of stablecoin rewards. Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks By A compromise in May prevents rewards on stablecoins that are economically or functionally equivalent to interest on bank deposits, while maintaining activity-based incentives. Shirzad said that the language has stabilized.
“The main architects of this compromise — Senator Tillis and Senator Albrooks — have been clear that the language is consistent,” he said. “This is the compromise they intend to defend with their colleagues.”
Damon Calls Coinbase’s Armstrong ‘Full of Shit’
On May 28, when JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon sat down with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business and Fox Business Channel. Fire a shot directly at the bill – And in Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
In the interview and in his remarks at the Reagan National Economic Forum, Dimon called Armstrong’s characterization of the banking industry’s position on the bill dishonest, using language that spread widely across social media.
Armstrong responded with a hockey-themed meme that received widespread support from across the cryptocurrency industry.
Dimon’s primary objection focuses on providing stablecoin rewards — the same currency that Coinbase has spent months fighting to protect. He said allowing crypto platforms to offer rewards similar to the returns on stablecoins gives those platforms a structural advantage over chartered banks, which operate under a different set of rules.
“If you want to be a bank, be a bank,” Dimon told Bartiromo. He also cited concerns about anti-money laundering compliance and enforcement of the Bank Secrecy Act, called the bill unenforceable in its current form, and said banks would not accept it without changes.
The confrontation is not without irony. Coinbase uses JPMorgan as its bank — a point Shirzad made casually.
“JPMorgan is our bank, and they have worked with us and stayed by our side, even during the Biden administration,” Shirzad said.
