Senator Cynthia Lummis urged the crypto industry to stay focused as Congress moves closer to passing long awaited digital asset market structure legislation.

We are closer to a functioning digital asset market structure than we have ever been. Now is not the time to flinch.

— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) June 2, 2026

Lummis, who chairs the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets, has been one of Congress’ most vocal crypto policy advocates. Her comments come as lawmakers push the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, known as the CLARITY Act, toward a possible Senate floor vote.

The bill is designed to answer one of crypto’s biggest regulatory questions: when a digital asset should be treated as a security and when it should be treated as a commodity.

That distinction would help determine whether tokens and platforms fall under the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. For crypto firms, the answer could shape listing decisions, disclosure rules, custody standards, and institutional adoption.

The House has already passed its version of the bill. The Senate Banking Committee released revised text on May 12 and advanced the measure two days later in a 15 to 9 vote.

Lummis is racing against the clock. She announced in December that she would not seek reelection in 2026, leaving a limited window to help move the bill through the Senate before her term ends.

The bill still needs to clear the full Senate and survive final negotiations with the House. Agency jurisdiction, stablecoin treatment, and market oversight remain key sticking points.

For investors, the main impact would be reduced legal uncertainty. A clear market structure could give exchanges, custodians, asset managers, and token issuers a better framework for building products without waiting for enforcement actions to define the rules.

It could also make crypto easier for institutions to underwrite from a compliance perspective. Large investors have remained cautious around digital assets partly because rules around custody, trading, surveillance, and token classification remain unsettled.

Lummis has framed the bill as a competitiveness issue, warning that the US risks falling behind jurisdictions with clearer digital asset frameworks.