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According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, the Clarity Act has passed the U.S. Senate Banking Committee with a vote of 15 in favor and 9 against, with Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks voting in favor. The next step for the bill is to be submitted to the full Senate for a vote.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee is currently holding a key hearing on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (referred to as the Clarity Act), where the committee will discuss and vote on dozens of amendments and decide whether to advance the bill to the full Senate for consideration. The bill aims to clarify the regulatory authority of the SEC and CFTC over digital assets and establish a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency market structure.During the meeting, Senator Cynthia Lummis stated that the Clarity Act is "one of the most challenging pieces of legislation" she has participated in, noting that the bill has undergone long-term bipartisan negotiations and involves issues such as stablecoin yields, anti-money laundering, and enforcement authority. Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, stated that the bill is "not ready" and criticized it for having loopholes in anti-money laundering and sanctions enforcement. Additionally, the committee passed an amendment regarding an AI regulatory sandbox by a vote of 15 to 9, while Warren's proposed amendment concerning the sanctions authority over mixers like Tornado Cash was not passed, with a vote of 11 to 13.In the market, Bitcoin briefly surpassed $81,000 during the meeting, and the S&P 500 index also reached a historic high.

According to The Block, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has released an updated 309-page text of the Clarity Act, which is set to be reviewed and voted on later this week. The new text includes language related to restrictions on stablecoin rewards, as well as provisions from the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, clarifying that non-custodial developers do not fall under the category of money transmitters. Coinbase, which previously withdrew its support due to controversies over the stablecoin rewards provisions, has now shifted to support, but banking groups still believe the restrictions are insufficient.Meanwhile, the bill still does not include ethical constraints regarding profits from digital assets for the president and other federal officials. Democrats have stated that without relevant compromises, the bill will struggle to gain support.

According to Crypto in America, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a formal markup of the cryptocurrency market structure bill, the Clarity Act, for Thursday. The final text of the relevant provisions is expected to be published before the meeting, and lawmakers must submit amendments by the deadline.Previously, the initial review was temporarily halted due to opposition from industry insiders, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, regarding the stablecoin yield provisions. Currently, cryptocurrency institutions like Coinbase generally accept the new text, but some banks serving retail customers are still sending letters to the Senate through industry associations, requesting further tightening of the "interest on deposits" space for stablecoins to prevent depositor migration.Meanwhile, some Democratic lawmakers may vote against the bill in its entirety during the committee stage due to dissatisfaction with potential conflicts of interest clauses related to Trump and his family involving crypto. This could lead to the bill passing through the committee along party lines, but facing uncertainty in garnering bipartisan support in the full chamber later.

According to Bloomberg, on the eve of the Senate Banking Committee's upcoming review of the digital asset bill, banking groups are proposing last-minute modifications to the compromise on stablecoin yields, aiming to completely ban stablecoin issuers from offering any form of rewards, rather than the previously allowed model of "users receiving rewards when actively using stablecoins."Six banking lobbying groups, including the American Bankers Association, stated in a letter that the exception clause in the senators' compromise would "harm deposits." The crypto industry quickly countered, with Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal stating on the X platform that the banking industry's proposal is not a "narrow adjustment," but rather aims to "stifle competition." Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis, who previously facilitated the compromise, issued a joint statement disagreeing with the banking industry's position, emphasizing that the compromise also allows crypto companies to offer other forms of customer rewards, and most importantly, provides a bipartisan path for the passage of the CLARITY Act.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will review H.R.3633, the "2025 Digital Asset Market Clarification Act," at 10:30 AM Eastern Time on May 14. Committee members will vote on the bill text and related amendments at that time.If the bill is passed, the Banking Committee version will be merged with the portion handled by the Senate Agriculture Committee into a final version, which will then be submitted for a full Senate vote.

According to Bloomberg, ECB President Lagarde stated that even euro-denominated stablecoins pose risks to financial stability and the transmission of monetary policy, questioning the necessity of introducing such tools.She pointed out that while euro stablecoins could lower financing costs in the euro area and enhance the global appeal of the euro, the costs are significant and outweigh short-term benefits. Lagarde emphasized that if the goal is to enhance the international appeal of the euro, stablecoins are not an effective means. She referenced a working paper from the ECB in March, which warned that the widespread adoption of stablecoins would pose significant risks to euro area banks and monetary sovereignty. She stated that Europe's task is not to "replicate tools developed elsewhere" and continues to push for the introduction of a digital euro.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, multiple industry insiders have revealed that the Senate Banking Committee may notify about the review of the CLARITY Act as early as tomorrow and has distributed the legislative draft text to some industry members, with a vote expected next Thursday.Insiders stated that the language of the draft is still being finalized, and additional revisions are anticipated to reflect the priorities of the Democratic office. One insider, after reviewing the bill and coordinating with industry leaders, indicated that the overall atmosphere is currently positive, but some terms in parentheses have raised concerns, and some key provisions that were previously thought to be resolved may still be subject to change.

According to The Block, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal stated that he is "very confident" that the stablecoin legislation, the Clarity Act, will pass before this summer, and publicly supports the compromise version proposed by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks.The proposal retains activity-based rewards linked to actual platform usage and limits balance-based idle yield, which banks view as a risk of deposit outflow.Grewal mentioned that banks failed to provide substantial evidence of deposit outflow risk during multiple meetings and warned that if the compromise is rejected, banks will face a more lenient framework under the GENIUS Act, which allows any non-issuer to offer any rewards. Grewal expects the Clarity Act to pass by this summer at the latest.

Nathan McCauley, co-founder of Anchorage Digital, announced on the X platform the launch of Agentic Banking, aimed at providing compliant and governable funding access for AI systems, covering identity verification, policy control, and settlement capabilities across both crypto and traditional financial systems, allowing AI to directly participate in economic activities within a regulated framework. This system relies on its U.S. federal chartered crypto bank qualification, which can provide a compliant "execution layer" to ensure transactions have permission control, real-time risk control, and auditability.Nathan McCauley further pointed out that the financial system is entering an "autonomous era," where AI is transitioning from a decision-support tool to an entity capable of independently executing tasks, including executing workflows, participating in negotiations, and conducting operations on behalf of organizations. The current financial system is not yet prepared for "non-human participants," lacking an identity system for AI, policy execution mechanisms, and compliant funding access methods, forcing institutions to balance between automation and risk.Previously, Anchorage had partnered with Google Cloud, which will build an "intelligent layer" to support discovery, collaboration, and decision-making among AI agents, while Anchorage is responsible for funding execution and settlement, promoting the cloud integration of institutional-level digital asset infrastructure, consolidating capabilities such as custody, key management, transaction governance, and staking, helping financial institutions embed stablecoins and digital assets into their products.

According to Cointelegraph, several major banking organizations in the United States have jointly stated that despite senators attempting to prohibit stablecoins from generating yields through the CLARITY Act, the latest wording in the bill still contains loopholes that fail to effectively prevent the outflow of bank deposits and do not adequately protect bank deposits.In a joint statement released, the American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Financial Services Forum, and the Independent Community Bankers of America pointed out that Section 404 of the bill allows crypto platforms to pay users interest or yields similar to bank deposits outside traditional rules, which is a significant loophole that needs to be addressed.Bank representatives warned that if the loophole is not closed, the large-scale adoption of stablecoins could lead to the loss of trillions of dollars in deposits from the U.S. banking system, particularly community banks, and could reduce loans to consumers, small businesses, and agriculture by more than one-fifth.Senator Thom Tillis responded that the current text has reached a compromise: it prohibits rewards on idle balances of stablecoins while allowing crypto platforms to offer other forms of customer rewards, believing this provides a possibility for bipartisan passage of the bill.However, the banking industry stated that it will submit specific amendment proposals to lawmakers in the coming days. The current text of the CLARITY Act was made public last Friday, and the crypto industry, including Coinbase, is pushing for a vote in the Senate next week.

According to market news, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the Treasury has taken action against Iran's shadow banking network, channels for acquiring crypto assets, and oil trade infrastructure.

According to official news, Banking Circle has officially launched a stablecoin settlement service today.Previously, the bank had obtained a crypto asset service provider (CASP) license issued by the Luxembourg financial regulator CSSF. The new service supports instant two-way exchanges between fiat currencies and mainstream stablecoins such as USDC, USDG, and EURI, and relies on the bank's core platform to achieve round-the-clock settlement and regulatory traceability. Currently, the global market value of stablecoins is approximately 250 billion euros, with an annual payment transaction volume of about 330 billion euros and a monthly on-chain transaction volume exceeding 80 trillion euros.Banking Circle CEO Laust Bertelsen stated that stablecoins have become the core infrastructure for cross-border settlement and fund management. This launch aims to combine the efficiency of blockchain payments with banking compliance standards to serve its global client base of over 750 payment institutions.

According to the Belarusian National News Agency BELTA, Alexander Yegorov, the First Deputy Chairman of the National Bank of Belarus, revealed at the "Digital Banking - 2026" conference that Belarus has signed Decree No. 19, officially establishing a regulatory framework for crypto banking.According to the relevant regulations, crypto banks will support 26 types of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), TON (Toncoin), Solana (SOL), and various stablecoins; at the same time, they will open 11 types of operations, including crypto deposits, crypto loans, crypto staking, crypto collateral, crypto transfers, issuing their own tokens, and crypto storage and exchange, among others. Yegorov stated that the list of currencies and operations mentioned above is not yet closed and will continue to be updated and improved as investor demand and new ideas emerge.

ChainCatcher reported live that HashKey Group Chairman Xiao Feng shared a keynote speech titled "Innovation of Economic Models for Intelligent Agents—The Fusion Revolution of AI Tokens, Blockchain Tokens, and Fully Homomorphic Encryption" at this year's 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival. He pointed out that the two major business characteristics of blockchain technology are trustlessness and permissionlessness, but public transparency leads to data exposure, making it difficult for compliant institutions like banks to directly go on-chain. With fully homomorphic encryption chips expected to be launched in the second half of this year, achieving performance of about 1000 transactions per second, privacy computing technology is about to reach commercial thresholds.He proposed that the fusion of AI Tokens, blockchain Tokens, zero-knowledge proofs, and fully homomorphic encryption technology is the ultimate form of the intelligent agent economy. He used hospitals as an example: medical data, after being fully homomorphically encrypted, becomes Tokens, and anyone can call the data for computation through the blockchain in a permissionless manner, but cannot access personal privacy information, thus turning hospitals into "Token factories." Individuals can also put their encrypted health check data on-chain, issuing demands to global insurance companies, which can calculate and provide personalized optimal insurance plans in an encrypted state using their actuarial models, eliminating the need for insurance brokers and intermediaries.He specifically corrected a common misunderstanding: AI Tokens are not the currency unit of the intelligent agent economy, but rather the means of production, encompassing everything from electricity, chip computing power, to large models, algorithms, and applications, depicting the production process of intelligent agents. The currency of the intelligent agent economy must be programmable, divisible, and capable of real-time settlement, because when AI Agents call APIs, they may only need a few cents each time, and the costs of existing banking payment systems cannot support such small payments. Digital currency is the "blood" of the intelligent agent economy, and a brand new financial service system designed for machines rather than humans will definitely emerge in the future.

Nik Storonsky, CEO of Europe's largest fintech company Revolut, recently stated in an interview with David Rubenstein that the company's IPO plan will take at least another two years, with the earliest listing expected in 2028. Before going public, the company will continue to provide liquidity to employees and early investors through secondary equity sales. It is reported that a new round of secondary transactions may start in 2026, with the company's latest valuation reaching $75 billion.Meanwhile, Revolut is actively expanding into the U.S. market and has completed its second application for a U.S. banking license. If approved, it will be able to directly access the Federal Reserve payment system and offer loans and credit card services to U.S. users.

According to The Block, Thom Tillis, a key negotiator for the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and a Republican senator from North Carolina, stated that the committee is unlikely to schedule a hearing to revise and vote on the cryptocurrency market structure bill within April.The main disagreement in the current legislation centers on how to handle rewards for stablecoins. The existing draft proposes to prohibit rewards for idle stablecoin accounts but allows earnings from trading activities; banking representatives are concerned that such earnings will attract deposits away from traditional banks, while cryptocurrency companies argue that limiting rewards will hinder innovation. Tillis suggested that the committee postpone the review until May.Previously, Senator Bernie Moreno warned that if the bill fails to pass before May, "digital asset legislation will not advance in the foreseeable future."

According to Crypto In America, the U.S. CLARITY Act has entered a critical negotiation period this week, and whether it will receive the long-awaited committee review in April or be postponed until May will depend on recent progress. The Senate Banking Committee will focus on the confirmation hearing of Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Walsh at the beginning of the week. After that, the committee must decide by Friday whether to notify the review of the bill in order to hold a vote in the week of April 27.The banking group represented by the North Carolina Bankers Association is lobbying against the stablecoin yield restriction provisions in the bill, urging members to call Senator Thom Tillis's office to request amendments. It is reported that industry groups are also reaching out to other committee members.After more than two months of negotiations, crypto companies and banks reached a compromise at the end of last month, which the crypto industry is generally satisfied with. However, after the White House Council of Economic Advisers report downplayed the risks of stablecoin yields to the banking system, calls for amendments from the banking side have intensified.Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council, criticized banks on the X platform for "further lobbying out of greed or ignorance." Senator Tillis proposed holding an in-person "crypto carnival" meeting, but this may extend the timeline. He emphasized that there are still issues to negotiate but expressed optimism about scheduling the review in the coming weeks.In addition to yield issues, the bill also needs to address ethical and DeFi-related provisions. This week's progress will determine the fate of the bill, and the market is highly attentive.