Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the Solana Policy Institute, said the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act has a 10% [1] chance of passing before the 2026 midterm elections.
The lack of legislative progress creates prolonged uncertainty for the cryptocurrency industry. Whitehouse-Levine said the sector cannot afford further delays while waiting for a congressional resolution.
Whitehouse-Levine described the legislation as being stuck in "August recess purgatory" [2]. He said the industry can’t afford to keep waiting for Congress [3]. This pessimism follows comments from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who said in mid-August that the Senate was not expected to pass the act before the August recess [4].
The CLARITY Act moved out of the Senate Banking Committee on May 14, 2026 [5]. Despite that movement, the path to final approval has narrowed. Some reports indicated a 37% [6] probability of passage following the Senate leader's comments, though Whitehouse-Levine maintains a lower estimate for the window leading up to the midterms [1].
Legislative trackers previously identified a four-week [7] window for Senate action on the bill. However, the current stalemate has shifted the focus toward executive agencies. Whitehouse-Levine said regulators should provide market certainty through swift action because the legislative process has stalled [2].
"I’d put the odds at about 10% that the CLARITY Act will clear the Senate before the midterm elections," Whitehouse-Levine said [1].
“"The industry can’t afford to keep waiting for Congress."”
The divergence between the 10% and 37% probability estimates highlights deep uncertainty regarding the U.S. legislative timeline for crypto. If the CLARITY Act fails to pass before the midterms, the industry will likely shift its lobbying efforts toward regulatory agencies to secure the operational clarity that Congress has failed to provide.
