The Senate left for a week-long Memorial Day recess without passing the border security reconciliation package. Disagreements over funding mean the Clarity Act will now compete for floor time when lawmakers return the first week of June.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin price dropped below $75,000 for the first time since the April recovery. Let’s recap the major crypto policy developments from this week and explain why markets are struggling.
What you'll learn 👉
Clarity Act Timeline: Senate Recess Pushes Vote to June
With Republicans still split over funding issues, an already tight calendar, and competing priorities including a housing bill, a farm bill, and a looming FISA deadline on June 12, the possibility that crypto market structure legislation ultimately gets put on the Senate floor in July is fueling questions about what that would mean for its chances of final passage before the August recess.
Senate staff began working behind the scenes this week to merge text between the Agriculture and Banking Committee products. Technical drafting work is expected to continue throughout the recess.
The bottom line: the Clarity Act is not dead, but the timeline has slipped. A July floor vote is now more likely than June, and passage before August is not guaranteed.
SEC Tokenization Exemption Delayed
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce clarified the scope of the SEC’s expected tokenization exemption. She suggested the exemption would not extend to so-called “synthetic” products – those that provide exposure to a stock’s price without giving investors direct ownership or traditional shareholder rights.
Crypto news outlets report that the SEC has delayed the rollout of the exemption after market participants raised concerns over parts of the framework, including the possibility of “third-party” tokenized products being issued without the backing or consent of the underlying public companies.
This delay contributed to negative market sentiment this week.
🚨NEW: Heading into Memorial Day weekend, here are a few crypto policy and market structure developments from this week worth recapping:
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) May 22, 2026
📌The Senate left for a week-long recess without passing the border security reconciliation package amid disagreements over its contents,…
More Clarity Act News: Trump Executive Orders and Fed Developments
President Trump signed two executive orders this week aimed at making it easier for fintechs and crypto firms to integrate into the financial system. One order directs the Fed to evaluate whether those firms could receive more direct access to features usually reserved for traditional banks, like master accounts.
Importantly, the EO does not force the Fed to act and does not guarantee access. But it formally pressures the Fed to re-evaluate its standards and legitimizes the broader conversation around giving non-traditional banks access to the payments system.
Separately, Fed Governor Waller is moving ahead with his own “skinny master account” framework. The next phase rolled out on Wednesday with a proposed rulemaking that includes:
- Raising the asset cap from 500 million or 10 billion.
- Temporarily pausing all new “Tier 3” master account applications until no later than December 2026 (most crypto firms fall under Tier 3).
- Establishing formal review timelines: 45 days for insured institutions, 90 days for uninsured firms.
Additionally, Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the 17th Chair of the Federal Reserve this week, pledging to lead a “reform-oriented Fed.” Jerome Powell is expected to stay on the Board of Governors.
Read also: ChatGPT Predicts the Price of Bitcoin if the CLARITY Act Gets Delayed to 2027
Bitcoin Price Action: Below $75K
Bitcoin is now trading below $75,000 for the first time since the April recovery that took it to $82K.
The broader crypto market is down, with total market cap at $2.5 trillion. Ethereum lost $2,100 support.
The SEC’s tokenization delay, uncertainty around the Clarity Act timeline, and macro headwinds (new Fed Chair, Iran tensions) are all weighing on prices.
ETF outflows continued this week. The combination of policy delays and regulatory uncertainty is keeping institutional buyers on the sidelines. Retail has little reason to buy altcoins when stocks are at all-time highs.
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