Senate CLARITY Act Revised Ahead of Pivotal Vote on DeFi Oversight

Senate Republicans have revised the CLARITY Act to address decentralized finance (DeFi) oversight, just five days before a crucial vote on September 15.

The 630-page amendment package, led by Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, incorporates over 114 provisions requested by Democrats, according to her office.

The revised DeFi language defines a 'non-decentralized finance transaction protocol' as one where a specific individual or group can materially control or alter the protocol's function, operations, or consensus rules. Entities managing such protocols would face registration and anti-money laundering obligations under securities, commodities, and Bank Secrecy Act frameworks.

The bill does not require registration for distributed ledger systems or software code itself, but rather focuses on spot trading in digital commodities.