Last night at 11 PM should have been a critical moment—the U.S. Senate Banking Committee was originally scheduled to review the Crypto Market Structure Act CLARITY, but a sudden opposition changed the situation.

The leading exchange Coinbase unexpectedly publicly opposed the bill, directly causing the Senate Banking Committee to cancel the hearing scheduled for that evening. Earlier, the Senate Agriculture Committee also postponed its review to January 27. As a result, the progress of CLARITY in Congress has once again been hindered.

Speaking of the CLARITY bill itself, its goal is quite clear—define the legal status of digital assets, clarify the regulatory scope of the SEC and CFTC, and build a unified, standardized federal regulatory framework. If it can be implemented, the long-standing ambiguities that have troubled the industry could be eliminated, providing project teams, institutional capital, and even traditional financial institutions with clear entry logic. This certainty could directly boost the valuation foundation of crypto assets, which is why the industry has always taken it seriously.

However, Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong has taken a firm stance, stating that it’s better not to pass a problematic bill than to pass one. He pointed out that the current version has serious flaws in DeFi regulation, stablecoin yield mechanisms, and user privacy protection, and is concerned that it could expand government control over financial data, thereby suppressing the incentives for stablecoins.

Interestingly, this disagreement is not about conflicting positions. Institutions like a16z, Circle, Kraken, and Ripple actually share the same ultimate goal as Coinbase, just with different strategies. They believe that even an imperfect bill is worth pushing forward—building the framework first, then gradually making modifications later—this is more practical than waiting indefinitely. Coinbase, on the other hand, worries that once a flawed bill is passed, it will be difficult to amend, and in the long run, it could become a barrier to industry development.

Since last year, CLARITY has been repeatedly hyped but has remained in the expectation stage. Its actual impact on the market is limited; the only thing worth paying attention to is whether this bill can ultimately pass. Only with real legislation can regulatory uncertainty be truly broken, providing a substantial positive impact on the crypto market.