---
type: source
title: "CLARITY Act could die before midterms; Coinbase gets conditional national trust charter"
author: "DL News Staff"
url: https://www.dlnews.com/articles/regulation/clarity-act-could-die-expert-warns
date: 2026-04-05
domain: internet-finance
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: processed
processed_by: rio
processed_date: 2026-04-07
priority: high
tags: [regulation, clarity-act, stablecoins, coinbase, trust-charter, securities, tokenized-assets]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

**CLARITY Act at risk (DL News April 5):**
Expert warns the CLARITY Act "could die" before midterm election pressure forces legislative focus elsewhere. The Blockchain Association maintains the bill has bipartisan support and "meaningful momentum." Legal expert John Deaton cautioned that midterm election pressures could kill legislation, particularly if regulatory control shifts to crypto-skeptic lawmakers. Passage odds diminish without action before summer.

The CLARITY Act is the primary US legislative vehicle for establishing clear securities-vs-commodity classification for crypto tokens, which is prerequisite to regulated token markets and would affect Living Capital vehicle classification.

**Crypto market structure bill pushed back (CoinDesk April 2):**
The broader market structure bill release has been delayed as industries negotiate over stablecoin yield provisions. The "revised stablecoin yield compromise" suggests ongoing disagreement about whether stablecoins can pay interest (which would trigger bank regulation).

**Coinbase conditional national trust charter (DL News April 2):**
Coinbase secured conditional national trust charter approval from US regulators. This is significant: Coinbase would operate as a federally chartered trust company, giving it the same regulatory legitimacy as traditional financial institutions while maintaining crypto-native infrastructure.

**IMF warns on tokenized finance (DL News April 4):**
The IMF stated that tokenized financial assets are "a double-edged sword without proper oversight." Highlights systemic risk of tokenized markets without adequate regulatory frameworks — notable as the IMF has historically been skeptical of crypto.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** The CLARITY Act is the primary legislative catalyst for the US regulatory clarity arc. Its potential death before midterms changes the regulatory timeline for ALL internet finance infrastructure in Rio's domain — Living Capital vehicles, Teleocap platform classification, MetaDAO token securities analysis. If CLARITY dies, the regulatory uncertainty extends potentially 2+ years.

**What surprised me:** The Coinbase trust charter is bigger than it sounds. A national trust charter for Coinbase creates a regulated entity that can operate across all 50 states without state-by-state licensing — the same competitive advantage that national banks have over state-chartered banks. This could be the template for how crypto exchanges obtain regulatory legitimacy without needing Congress to act.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Specific language of the stablecoin yield compromise. Whether stablecoins can pay interest determines whether they compete with bank deposits, which determines whether banks will lobby to kill stablecoin legislation.

**KB connections:**
- [[Living Capital vehicles likely fail the Howey test for securities classification]] — depends on regulatory clarity that CLARITY Act would provide. Its failure leaves the KB's regulatory analysis as legal hypothesis rather than settled framework.
- The stablecoin yield compromise connects to the GENIUS Act track that earlier sessions monitored.
- Coinbase trust charter is a different mechanism: regulated legitimacy through charter rather than legislation. This could set precedent for MetaDAO-adjacent entities.

**Extraction hints:**
- New claim candidate: "A conditional national trust charter for Coinbase creates a regulatory template for crypto-native financial institutions to achieve multi-state legitimacy outside traditional congressional legislation"
- Enrichment to regulatory arc: CLARITY Act mortality risk should be noted alongside the existing "regulatory bifurcation" pattern — federal legislative uncertainty is now a third dimension

**Context:** The CLARITY Act has been the primary legislative vehicle tracked since Session 2. Its potential death would not eliminate the regulatory analysis (Howey test reasoning, investment club precedent remain valid) but would extend the timeline for legal clarity significantly. The Coinbase charter path suggests an alternative regulatory legitimization route that doesn't require congressional action.

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[Living Capital vehicles likely fail the Howey test for securities classification because the structural separation of capital raise from investment decision eliminates the efforts of others prong]]
WHY ARCHIVED: CLARITY Act mortality risk changes the timeline for regulatory clarity that Rio's Living Capital regulatory analysis assumes; Coinbase charter offers an alternative legitimization path worth tracking
EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on CLARITY Act risk timeline implications for token classification + Coinbase charter as alternative regulatory template — two separate claims
