'We are closer than ever': US crypto czar David Sacks says Clarity Act markup confirmed for January

White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks said on Thursday that the markup for the Clarity Act, the landmark crypto market structure bill, is confirmed for January.

"We had a great call today with Chairmen [Tim Scott] and [John Boozman] who confirmed that a markup for Clarity is coming in January," Sacks wrote in a post on social media platform X. "We are closer than ever to passing the landmark crypto market structure legislation that President Trump has called for."

Scott serves as the chair of the Senate Banking Committee, while Boozman leads the Agriculture Committee. Sacks added that he looks forward to passing the legislation in January.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is a bipartisan legislation that establishes a regulatory framework for digital assets, clarifying jurisdiction between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The bill passed the House of Representatives in July with strong bipartisan support.

Sacks' latest update indicates that the bill has progressed to the Senate to hold a markup session with the Senate's Banking and Agriculture committees. Markup sessions review, amend, and vote on the bill in the committee before it advances to a full floor vote in the Senate.

Meanwhile, the Senate has its own version of a crypto market structure bill that seeks to allocate jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC and create a new term for "ancillary assets" to clarify which cryptocurrencies are not securities. The bill is still at the discussion draft phase.

The markup process in January could potentially merge the House-passed Clarity Act with elements from the Senate committees' ongoing discussion drafts.