Coinbase Policy Chief Faryar Shirzad on Clarity Act Setback and Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill Outlook
Key Takeaways
- •The Clarity Act's cloture vote failed in the Senate, stalling the market-structure bill despite its bipartisan House passage in July 2025.
- •Coinbase policy chief Faryar Shirzad identified the late legislative calendar and an estimated $200 million big-bank campaign as the primary obstacles to the bill.
- •Shirzad said policy momentum now moves to the SEC, CFTC, and bank regulators under SEC Chair Paul Atkins, as part of a three-track strategy covering legislation, regulation, and international engagement.
- •The Clarity Act would divide digital-asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC, addressing whether many assets should be treated as securities or commodities.
- •A separate Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill seeks to give statutory standing to the bitcoin stockpile President Trump established by executive order in March 2025.
The Clarity Act's cloture vote failed in the Senate this week, and Coinbase Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad has offered the clearest post-mortem yet on why the market-structure push stalled.
Speaking on a Bitcoin Magazine program, Shirzad pointed to two headwinds: an electoral calendar that caught the bill late in the legislative cycle, and a campaign by big banks — estimated at roughly $200 million — that he said created serious drag on the process.
Shirzad explained why he believes Congress has had its shot at the legislation and why the real action now moves to the SEC, the CFTC and bank regulators under SEC Chair Paul Atkins. He also laid out a three-track policy strategy — legislation, regulation and international engagement — that he says still has strong momentum. With the legislative track stalled for now, the pace and direction of rulemaking at those agencies becomes the marker many observers will watch to gauge how U.S. digital-asset policy develops from here.
Background on the legislative fight
Cloture is the Senate procedure for ending debate and advancing a bill toward final passage, generally requiring a 60-vote supermajority — a bar that makes bipartisan support essential for most major legislation in the chamber. The Clarity Act, which passed the House in July 2025 with bipartisan support, seeks to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets by dividing oversight between the SEC and the CFTC, a split that reflects the long-running jurisdictional question over whether many digital assets should be treated as securities or as commodities.
Separately, a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill would codify a national bitcoin stockpile into law. President Donald Trump established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve by executive order in March 2025, capitalized with bitcoin forfeited to the federal government, and proponents in Congress have since sought to put the reserve into statute — a step that would give the stockpile firmer legal standing than an executive order, which a future administration could move to alter.
Disclaimer
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This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Patrick Green.
