The US Securities and Exchange Commission has scheduled a CLARITY Act roundtable for May, bringing together SEC and CFTC officials with crypto industry representatives to debate digital asset market structure jurisdiction, one of the final regulatory steps before the Senate Banking Committee’s expected markup the week of May 11.
Summary
- The SEC roundtable on the CLARITY Act is set for May 2026 and will address the central jurisdictional question of whether specific digital assets are regulated by the SEC or the CFTC under the proposed market structure framework.
- Senator Tim Scott confirmed he has now secured Tillis and additional Republican votes for the markup, but Senator John Kennedy continues to withhold support, leaving the goal of 13 of 13 Republican votes unmet.
- Senator Thom Tillis separately raised a new hurdle: law enforcement groups oppose a DeFi provision in the bill that would protect developers from liability for users’ illicit activities on their platforms, adding a fresh unresolved issue to the calendar.
The SEC roundtable follows the agency’s March 17 joint taxonomy with the CFTC, which named 16 digital assets as commodities and provided the framework that the CLARITY Act would convert into permanent federal statute. CoinGape reported that the SEC plans to host the roundtable in May 2026, with the Senate Banking Committee simultaneously targeting a markup the week of May 11 — the first legislative action on the bill since the Senate returned from recess. As crypto.news reported, the April markup deadline was missed because the Warsh confirmation consumed the Banking Committee’s calendar, compressing the remaining window to eight working days before the May 21 Memorial Day recess.
As crypto.news documented, Senator Lummis warned at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference that the current political alignment enabling the CLARITY Act is rare and fragile, and that failure before May 21 pushes the next opportunity to 2030. That framing makes the SEC roundtable not just an informational exercise but a public signal from the regulator that it is ready to implement the legislation, which is one of the conditions Senate Republicans cite for moving forward. Senator Scott said on Fox Business that he now has Tillis and additional Republicans on board and is targeting 13 of 13 Republican votes, though Senator Kennedy remains a holdout. As crypto.news tracked, Tillis added a new hurdle on May 1 by saying lawmakers must address law enforcement concerns about the DeFi developer liability provision before a markup can proceed — a complication that was not publicly flagged until this week.
