Senate Republicans circulated a new draft of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on Thursday, incorporating revisions negotiated during the August congressional recess ahead of a critical procedural vote scheduled for Tuesday, September 15.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, the amendments preserve the bill’s core structure while making significant adjustments to decentralized finance regulation and credit unions’ authority over digital assets.

The most substantial revision concerns decentralized finance. Under the updated text, non-decentralized finance trading protocols would be required to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and comply with Bank Secrecy Act requirements. The provision applies to protocols in which identifiable individuals or groups retain control over functionality, rules, or consensus.

The language mirrors Section 10301 of the Senate Banking Committee’s version of the bill. It extends regulatory obligations to protocol operators that do not satisfy genuine decentralization tests while explicitly protecting software developers and decentralized governance systems.

The revised bill also limits the DeFi provisions to spot or cash transactions involving digital commodities. The restriction is understood to address concerns raised by tribal governments regarding blockchain-based prediction markets.

A third revision clarifies the authority of credit unions—including federal credit unions and insured, state-chartered institutions—to participate in crypto-related activities such as custody, staking facilitation, and payments.

The draft’s ethics, banking, and stablecoin-yield sections remain unchanged. The legislation continues to prohibit certain digital asset transactions by covered officials and bars digital asset service providers from paying interest or yield on payment stablecoin balances. It retains exemptions for bona fide activity-based rewards.

NEW: Senate Republicans have released updated Clarity Act text reflecting changes negotiated over the August recess. There appear to be no changes to the ethics section. BRCA and stablecoin yield sections also remain the same. The changes here include: Requiring… pic.twitter.com/cYIlr2VsLG — Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) September 10, 2026

The post’s source link is available at https://mpost.io/revised-clarity-act-targets-defi-protocols-as-senate-gears-up-for-critical-60-vote-test/.

Road to a Vote Remains Uncertain

Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the bill’s chief negotiators, said that more than 114 provisions requested by Democratic colleagues had been incorporated. She described the measure as a strong bipartisan product and said it would provide the industry with a lasting framework that could protect it from the “whiplash” of changes in administration. She noted that the CFTC and SEC will write digital asset rules with or without the bill.

The path forward remains uncertain. Tuesday’s cloture vote will require 60 votes, making substantial Democratic support essential. As a procedural vote, cloture would determine whether the Senate can move forward with consideration of the bill rather than resolve the legislation’s final outcome. Democrats have continued to raise concerns about the absence of a bipartisan ethics agreement that would restrain President Trump and other senior officials from profiting from crypto businesses.

Senator Thom Tillis said earlier this week that the White House still needed to engage on a bipartisan ethics proposal. Key Democrats have said they will not support the bill without such an agreement.

White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt urged all senators to support the motion to proceed. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that failure to advance the legislation would signal that the United States was unwilling to lead on the future of digital assets and was prepared to forgo enhanced national security tools to combat their misuse.

Banking groups also remain dissatisfied. The American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, and 77 state banking associations sent an open letter on Thursday calling for stronger restrictions on stablecoin rewards.

Industry organizations, including the Digital Chamber, offered a different assessment. Its leader, Cody Carbone, said the draft reflected years of bipartisan negotiation and argued that the Senate must act now or risk ceding U.S. leadership in digital asset innovation to the rest of the world.