This Week, a Meeting Will Determine the Fate of Cryptocurrencies – Here’s the Date and Time

The CLARITY Act, expected to shape the future of the cryptocurrency market in the US, will be on the agenda of the US Senate Banking Committee on January 15th.

The committee will discuss the structure of the cryptocurrency market and vote on the bill at its session scheduled for January 15 at 18:00 (UTC+3, 10:00 ET).

The bill aims to combat fraudulent transactions, misleading trading activities, and inflated trading volumes. It also seeks to address long-standing regulatory uncertainties by requiring crypto companies to provide proof of reserves.

According to some analysts, if the CLARITY Act is enacted, manipulation rates in the cryptocurrency market could decrease by 70-80%. This, they suggest, could pave the way for a faster entry of large institutional funds into the crypto market by 2026.

If the bill passes the committee, it will first be presented to the Senate General Assembly. If it is approved there, it will be sent to the House of Representatives. In the final stage, it will become law with the signature of US President Donald Trump.

Some critical issues that the Democrats have been raising for months continue to create debate in the negotiations:

• Democrats are demanding an explicit provision prohibiting high-ranking public officials from profiting personally from cryptocurrency activities. Trump and his family’s digital asset ventures, in particular, are being criticized under this heading.
• There are calls for decentralized finance (DeFi) projects to be subject to a similar oversight regime to that of federally regulated financial institutions.
• The previously passed GENIUS Act prohibited stablecoin issuers from offering interest. However, there are interpretations that the new regulation could allow yield or reward programs through affiliates. While the banking sector argues that this would threaten the deposit system, White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt stated that these objections preserve the existing and problematic status quo. On the other hand, Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad argued that this issue has already been resolved with the GENIUS Act and that reopening the discussion would create uncertainty.