Senate Banking Committee Passes Digital Asset Clarity Act 15-9 — Bitcoin Spikes, $250M in Shorts Liquidated!

The Senate Banking Committee passed the Digital Asset Clarity Act on May 14, 2026, by a 15-9 vote, triggering an immediate market response: Bitcoin surged to $81,965 before retracing to $80,500, while over $250 million in short positions were liquidated within four hours as traders who had been betting against tokens now likely classified as commodities were forced to cover.

The bill's core mechanism is a definitive SEC-vs-CFTC jurisdictional split. Assets on sufficiently decentralized networks shift from the SEC's securities regime to the CFTC's commodity framework — ending years of enforcement-by-ambiguity that kept institutional capital on the sidelines. Crypto-linked equities reflected the structural read: Coinbase surged 9.10%, MicroStrategy jumped 8.16%, and Robinhood added 6.16% in a single session.

The bipartisan signal matters. Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego and Angela…