Introduced in May 2025, the Clarity Act is designed to clarify which U.S. agencies supervise different parts of the crypto market, and it cleared the House last July. It is scheduled for consideration in the Senate on Sept. 15.
The sticking point is rounding up 60 votes. Ethics provisions are among the open items, with Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona telling the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium last month, "The way to get 60 votes is with good ethics legislation as well as rounding out some of the things that are still outstanding."
On CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" Thursday, Armstrong said his discussions indicate the Senate is ready to rally behind the bill, and he noted that crypto companies, law-enforcement organizations and several banks are broadly on board. He also argued that even if the measure doesn't pass, the industry should still get rulebook-level direction soon, since he said the SEC and CFTC are prepared to put out rulemaking and that clarity will land "on the 15th or the day or two after."
Armstrong said the ethics language is still being hammered out but looked "very close to a solution" heading into the vote. He called passage a "regulatory checkbox" that could help unlock institutional money and open the door to offerings like tokenized equities in the U.S. "It'd be a big milestone."
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Coinbase has been one of the bill's loudest cheerleaders while expanding past crypto spot trading - a segment that Armstrong said has "basically been down for the last year." Roughly half of revenue is tied to trading. The company has widened its trading lineup to include stocks, commodities and foreign exchange, and its non-trading streams include stablecoin activity and institutional custody.
In July, Coinbase posted second-quarter revenue of $1.2 billion, down from $1.5 billion a year earlier, alongside a net loss of $359.5 million, versus a $1.43 billion profit in the same quarter last year. It fell short of Wall Street expectations on revenue and earnings for the third straight quarter. Shares are off nearly 23% year to date, and Armstrong has linked some of the financial pressure to the slump in spot trading.
The company is also pushing abroad, establishing operations in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, which Armstrong characterized as its Asia hub. As he put it, "We basically just try to grow when we have windows and we try to bide our time in the areas where we're sensing hostility."
For everyday investors, the near-term watch items are simple: whether the Senate moves on Sept. 15 and how quickly agencies act if it doesn't. Longer term, clearer rules could influence which Coinbase lines of business drive results if spot trading stays soft.
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