Senate Republicans Release Revised CLARITY Act Text on DeFi

Senate Republicans released a revised 630-page version of the CLARITY Act on Thursday, September 10, 2026, ahead of a critical procedural vote scheduled for September 15. The updated draft of the digital asset market structure bill, unveiled by Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, would require non-decentralized decentralized finance protocols to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and narrows the bill's DeFi protections to spot and cash transactions. The revised text retains the broader market structure framework from the July draft, which divides oversight between the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission and establishes federal registration categories for digital commodity exchanges and brokers. The main changes concentrate on Section 20209, which covers software developers and DeFi. Under the new language, a protocol can be classified as non-decentralized if a person or coordinated group has authority to materially alter its operation, if the system does not operate solely through predetermined on-chain code, or if someone can restrict or censor its use. Meeting that control test would not automatically trigger registration.