By Coinbase Exec Sees Path To Crypto’s ‘Dodd-Frank Moment’ As CLARITY Act Heads For Senate Floor
The fate of America’s current crypto market may hinge on a Senate vote expected this month, and few people are watching it closer than Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad.
In an interview on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria earlier today, Shirzad made the case that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — known as the CLARITY Act — represents the most significant financial regulatory legislation since Dodd-Frank, and that passage is within reach.
“This will be the biggest financial regulatory bill that Congress has done in quite some time, certainly since Dodd-Frank,” Shirzad said. “What this does is it creates clarity for the crypto sector.”
The stakes are high. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis issued a blunt warning on X on May 29, telling lawmakers this Congress represents the final window for action. “The next window for digital asset legislation after this Congress is likely 2030,” Lummis wrote. “Until then, developers remain exposed with no legal protections, and law enforcement remains without the tools to hold bad actors accountable. The CLARITY Act solves both.”
The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee in a 15-9 vote on May 14, with Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland crossing party lines to support it. But the full floor vote is a different math problem. The bill needs 60 votes to clear the Senate, and with November’s midterm elections compressing the legislative calendar, the window for passage is measured in weeks.
Shirzad expressed confidence that the numbers are there.
“The Republican caucus is pretty unified,” he said. “The president’s been putting a shoulder into this, and there’s a very large group of Democrats who want to get this done. We’ve got about 80 Democrats in the House who voted for this, and I think we’ll get a proportional number in the Senate.”
U.S. government’s pro-crypto legislation
President Trump has made crypto legislation a White House priority, posting on Truth Social with a pledge to codify a “future-proof” digital asset market — and his team is targeting a July 4 signing.
Shirzad framed the bill not as a crypto-versus-banks fight, but as an expansion of opportunity for the traditional financial sector.
“This will be the first piece of legislation since the 90s that gives banks new authorization to get into the crypto space,” he said. “I know JPMorgan wants to get into it. Every other big bank wants to get into the crypto sector. We welcome their entry.”
Coinbase’s confidence extends beyond legislation. The exchange scored a significant regulatory win on May 29, when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued guidance that cleared Coinbase Financial Markets to connect U.S. institutional clients to global crypto derivatives markets.
Coinbase Financial Markets became the first CFTC-regulated futures commission merchant to offer domestic clients access to global crypto perpetuals and options — instruments that account for roughly 80% of all global crypto trading volume. The exchange acquired derivatives platform Deribit, which holds over $31 billion in Bitcoin options open interest, and began institutional onboarding immediately. Retail access is planned for a later date.
“This is a big regulatory unlock,” Shirzad said. “It shows that U.S. regulators are trying to execute on what the president has said — which is to bring the crypto markets onto U.S. soil.”
On the state of the broader crypto market, Shirzad pushed back against any notion that the big trades are behind investors.
“We’re even more bullish about crypto as a technology,” he said, pointing to the integration of blockchain-based infrastructure across major banks and financial services firms. “Crypto is now the accepted upgrade of the financial system.”
He described the coming era as “tokenized” — financial applications built on blockchain rails — with the CLARITY Act providing the legal foundation that would unlock participation from both crypto-native firms and legacy institutions.
One live issue remains the stablecoin rewards provision. Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks brokered a compromise in May that bars rewards on stablecoins that are economically or functionally equivalent to bank deposit interest, while preserving activity-based incentives. Shirzad said the language is settled.
“The key architects of that compromise — Senator Tillis and Senator Alsobrooks — have been clear that the language is fixed,” he said. “This is the compromise they intend to defend with their colleagues.”
Dimon calls Coinbase’s Armstrong “full of sh*t”
On May 28, when JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon sat down with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business and fired a direct shot at the bill — and at Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
In the interview and in remarks at the Reagan National Economic Forum, Dimon called Armstrong’s characterization of the banking industry’s position on the bill dishonest, using language that circulated widely across social media.
Armstrong responded with a hockey-themed meme that drew broad support from across the crypto industry.
Dimon’s core objection centers on the stablecoin rewards provision — the same one Coinbase spent months fighting to protect. He argued that allowing crypto platforms to offer yield-like rewards on stablecoins gives those platforms a structural advantage over chartered banks, which operate under a different set of rules.
“If you want to be a bank, be a bank,” Dimon told Bartiromo. He also cited concerns about anti-money laundering compliance and Bank Secrecy Act enforcement, calling the bill unenforceable in its current form and saying banks would not accept it without changes.
The standoff is not without irony. Coinbase uses JPMorgan as its own bank — a point Shirzad made unprompted.
“JP Morgan is our bank, and they’ve worked with us and stayed by our side, even through the Biden administration,” Shirzad said.
