Written by Vince Quill⁠, Staff Writer. Reviewed by Robert Lakin⁠, Staff Editor.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong gets behind CLARITY Act ahead of Thursday markup

Latest NewsPublishedMay 13, 2026

Armstrong said the bill is "closer than ever" to advancing in the US Congress after months of negotiations between the crypto industry and banks.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is supporting the latest version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) ahead of the US Senate's markup of the crypto market structure bill on Thursday.

“I don't think it's ever been in a stronger or more bipartisan position,” he said about the latest iteration of the market structure bill.

Armstrong said that the banking and crypto industry lobbies have reached a “healthy compromise” on stablecoin yield, which was one of the main issues that stalled the market structure bill in January. He added:

“I think there was a healthy compromise there, brokered by Senators Tillis and Alsobrooks. And you know, it was a good compromise because both sides left a little bit unhappy, but at least we got to a place that we can all live with.”

The latest version of the CLARITY bill also improved provisions surrounding decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenized stocks, and the authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to regulate crypto markets, he said.

Source: Brian Armstrong

The comments and the bill’s pending markup follow months of back-and-forth negotiations between the banking sector and the crypto industry over the bill, which stalled in January 2025 after crypto industry players, led by Coinbase, rejected the initial draft.

About 20% of the US population owns crypto, according to industry advocacy groups

About one in five Americans, or 20%, owns cryptocurrency, according to the National Cryptocurrency Association’s 2025 State of Crypto Holders report, which surveyed 54,000 US residents.

The survey found that about 67% of US crypto owners are below the age of 45, while about 15% are over 55 years old.

A demographic breakdown of crypto users in the United States. Source: National Cryptocurrency Association

The top-ranked use case for cryptocurrency was as an investment, with 52% of holders indicating that they use digital assets to “invest in their financial future,” according to the survey.

A HarrisX poll conducted earlier this month also found that 52% of the 2,008 registered US voters surveyed supported passing the CLARITY Act into law, while just 11% opposed the passage of the legislation.

Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?

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