Kara Calvert 🛡️ retweeted
It’s great to see the SEC proposing merit-based private market access in the US. This will be a huge step forward.
For too long, only the richest people have had access to the private markets. Retail has been missing out.
And over the last few years, companies have been incentivized to stay private longer (so retail has been missing out even more at best, or become exit liquidity at worst).
Kara Calvert 🛡️ retweeted
CLARITY would have given the @CFTC new funding mechanisms and expedited hiring authority. Some of the same people raising concerns about staffing today opposed the legislation that would have helped address it.
@ChairmanSelig is moving forward. Congress should help him build the agency he needs, not just commission another report.
Kara Calvert 🛡️ retweeted
The legislative process is messy, even for simple stuff like renaming buildings (trust me). Senators aren't elected to referee a process, they're elected to vote on policy proposals. 1/
Spot on, @KristinSmith. Not many people have been advocating for clear rules longer than you. Thanks for putting it in perspective.
After a few days of reflecting on—and dissecting—everything that happened with CLARITY, one thing stands out as remarkable: the tireless work of dozens of staffers who cared deeply about getting this right.
And among them is a small group who went above and beyond. They deserve our deepest gratitude.
Some of the hardest parts of legislating happen between the headlines: endless drafts, competing priorities, hard red lines, and brinksmanship. That back-and-forth isn’t failure. It’s how serious bipartisan legislation gets stronger.
Staffers rarely get the credit they deserve for that work. They put in countless late nights, wrestled with incredibly hard issues, and showed up every day to represent their Senators and their states.
Public service is too often thankless.
So thank you—to the staffers, and to everyone who read the text, engaged constructively, and called their Senators. Hope we can all keep showing up. That’s how we get clear rules for crypto.
Kara Calvert 🛡️ retweeted
Here we go again! The WSJ is working on a story blaming Coinbase and me personally for the CLARITY Act not passing.
The Journal has repeatedly been hostile to CLARITY in its reporting, regurgitating bank lobby talking points, while I’ve spent years pushing for crypto legislation, but that’s not stopping them from trying to reverse the blame.
The boring TLDR: in January I opposed a draft of the bill going into a committee vote, because it needed a lot of work on DeFi, tokenization, CFTC authority, and stablecoin rewards. At the time, the bill had major issues that would have harmed crypto. Support was fractured, and it wasn’t passable. We worked with a number of parties who improved the bill and made it passable. All four of the items I called out were fixed in the draft that then went through the committee about four months later. I'm proud to have done it, and would do it again, because it helped create a better bill. One step of many along the way.
The final draft of CLARITY that went to the Senate was great, and I strongly supported it. I'll continue showing up for our customers and pushing for clear rules that treat crypto fairly, even if those who feel threatened by crypto try to plant false stories. It's a shame that the WSJ takes direction from bank lobbyists instead of reporting the truth, but luckily, people are smart enough to see through it these days, and it backfires on them every time.
Kara Calvert 🛡️ retweeted
Crypto and stablecoins are coming to your local bank app.
We're partnering with Stablecore to integrate regulated digital asset custody, trading, and payments into thousands of community banks and credit unions.
Finance is moving onchain - banks included.
I would say the same thing about @Sen_Alsobrooks. She was heroic and principled in her efforts to find compromise on the toughest issues. And her work, along with @SenRubenGallego and @SenGillibrand, should be recognized and commended. The CLARITY Act is a good bill, and I have faith we’ll still get it done. Some day.
Completely agree. @SenThomTillis is principled, fearless, hard nosed and fair. We weren’t thrilled with the compromise he and @Sen_Alsobrooks came up with on rewards, but it was a thoughtful good faith effort to get it right. It was especially impressive to see him stick by his compromise even under enormous pressure. Outstanding person and public servant.
.@CynthiaMLummis (@SenLummis) as a longtime advocate for crypto, I’m grateful for all of your work on the CLARITY Act. As a lifelong Wyomingite, I’m so proud to call you my home state Senator. You have been an incredible steward of Wyoming’s commitment to economic freedom, individual choice, innovation, and pro-growth policy. Simply put, you deserve every one of the best monikers! 🙏
With today's Senate action, we now know four things:
1/ Today's vote mattered. After years of negotiations, it was largely a partisan vote when the music stopped. That’s unfortunate because so many people on both sides of the aisle worked hard to improve this bill. And yet, the Democrats voted as a block against the most comprehensive, bipartisan bill ever written. Maybe there will be an opportunity to bring everybody back to the table with a commitment to get a bill done — I hope so.
2/ The banks did everything in their power to kill the Clarity Act. The big banks and the small banks worked together to hand @realDonaldTrump a loss and stop financial innovation and competition in America, and they successfully put several Republicans on record as anti-crypto. This was not a zero sum game, but they made it one.
3/ The GENIUS Act is the law of the land. Anybody who wants to earn more than 0.1% on their bank account should look at other options.
4/ There’s another path, and there's zero time to waste. @ChairmanSelig and @SECPaulSAtkins have spent more than a year preparing for this moment, and they are ready to put in place rules that will enable the future of finance. It's time to get it done.
Kara Calvert 🛡️ retweeted
There’s no sense in sugarcoating it: today’s vote was a major disappointment—and, I believe, a failure of American leadership. The full cost of today’s result may not be known for years to come, but this much is clear: it increases the risk that the standards that global financial markets adhere to in the future will be those of Brussels or Beijing, rather than Washington and New York.
I want to thank @POTUS for the opportunity to work on this important legislation and for the remarkable concessions he was willing to make to give this bill a chance; @DavidSacks for his wise leadership on not only crypto but all frontier tech policy; and all the Senators and their staffs who devoted countless hours to working on this bill, chief among them @SenLummis who deserved much better than this.
Lastly, I also want to thank my colleagues across the administration at Treasury, SEC, and the CFTC. Their partnership helped us find creative solutions to challenging issues throughout this process, and their patience made it possible for us to see it all the way through to a vote.
On that last point: @SECPaulSAtkins and @ChairmanSelig, you’re up!
Kara Calvert 🛡️ retweeted
Congrats to the big banks on lobbying to kill Clarity.
Now the Genius ACT remains the law of the land and crypto exchanges can offer yield.
Thanks!
Kara Calvert 🛡️ retweeted
Senators pick one of two choices today:
1. vote yes on the CLARITY Act to promote innovation, protect consumers, put new ethics restrictions on elected officials, and create new law enforcement tools to combat illicit finance, or
2. vote no and let other countries lead in building the future of finance
History - and the crypto voter - won’t forget.
Tomorrow, the Senate will consider the CLARITY Act.
A year ago, a group of Democratic senators put out their own framework for what serious market structure legislation needed to accomplish. They identified seven pillars: closing the regulatory gap, clarifying the status of digital assets, bringing issuers and platforms into the regulatory framework, combating illicit finance, preventing corruption and abuse, and ensuring fair and effective regulation.
Every one of those seven pillars is addressed in the legislation before the Senate tomorrow.
And that’s only part of the story. The final text incorporates 126 additional substantive changes requested by Democrats. It includes a historic ethics framework, stronger enforcement — including a role for state attorneys general — new protections around conflicts and insider abuse, stronger consumer and customer-property protections, tougher illicit-finance rules, and greater accountability for the regulators charged with overseeing these markets.
None of that happened by accident. It is the product of more than a year of members raising hard questions, negotiating difficult issues and materially reshaping the legislation.
Congress rarely gets the opportunity to write the rules for an entirely new financial market from the ground up. This is one of those moments.
The bill before the Senate tomorrow is fundamentally different from where this process began. Democratic negotiators played a major role in getting it here. They should vote for it tomorrow.
Let’s pass CLARITY.
Today is the day. Senators, if you care about consumers, combatting fraud and illicit finance, and beating China, you will vote for this bill.
Every markup, hearing, vote, meeting, phone call, roundtable, trip to DC, and drafting session over the last 5 years (or 10 for those of who have been on the ground since 2016) has led to this moment. Senators only get one chance to ensure the CLARITY Act lives to fight another day.
Today we find out who stands for American leadership in finance - and who doesn't.
The CLARITY Act delivers on every priority.
- Ethics: clear rules and real accountability
- Enforcement: full law enforcement support
- Protection: critical guardrails for everyday Americans
Huge thanks to all the Senators and millions of advocates for getting us to this point.
Kara Calvert 🛡️ retweeted
Crypto companies have been offering rewards on stablecoins for years. We don’t need to speculate: If the deposit flight myth were real, it would have already occurred. Instead, data shows bank deposits are going up, not down.
Still, the compromise contained in Section 404 of the Clarity Act restricts the payment of stablecoin rewards that mimic interest on bank deposits. The latest draft now also adds a “circuit breaker” granting the Secretary of the Treasury extraordinary authority to further restrict stablecoin rewards in the event the boogeyman of deposit flight materializes.
If Clarity fails, banks get none of these protections.
Inbox: Just about every banking group has joined forces on a letter explaining why the latest text of the Senate crypto bill doesn't do enough to address their concerns over stablecoin yields.
"A circuit breaker that activates only after substantial deposit flight has already occurred is not a safeguard at all."
Community banks and crypto aren't opposing forces. As @faryarshirzad explains in @AmericanBanker, Clarity creates a regulatory environment that allows crypto and banks to work together to build the future financial system.
The Senate can advance that vision tomorrow when they vote at 2:15pm ET. There are no do-overs. The time is now to pass the CLARITY Act.
In @AmerBanker today, I take on three myths that have lingered far too long in the CLARITY stablecoin rewards debate - and obscured the opportunity stablecoins offer the U.S. and community banks.
Three facts:
1. The U.S. Treasury never warned of $6.6 trillion in deposit flight from stablecoins.
2. No one has demonstrated an empirical link between stablecoin adoption and deposit outflows. Stablecoins and bank deposits have grown alongside each other for years.
3. The Tillis-Alsobrooks compromise addresses the deposit-like rewards that banks said they feared.
The bigger story is the opportunity.
GENIUS created a safe digital dollar that moves instantly, settles around the clock, and extends American financial leadership. For community banks, stablecoins and public blockchains offer the ability to move money globally as quickly and efficiently as the largest institutions.
Let’s not make stablecoins less useful before everyone has a chance to put them to work.
Let’s pass CLARITY.
Read the op-ed: americanbanker.com/opinion/b…
