The Senate Banking Committee will hold a markup vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on May 14 at 10:30 AM EST, moving the bipartisan bill one step closer to law. Bitcoin is trading around $81,200 this week, lifted by seven straight weeks of spot ETF inflows totaling $3.43 billion and a recovery from February’s $63,000 low. The bill, which already passed the House last July by a 294–134 vote, would hand the CFTC exclusive authority over spot markets for decentralized digital commodities while keeping SEC oversight of investment contracts.
What the compromise changed
A May 11 compromise between Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks helped clear a logjam. The deal permits activity-based rewards like staking but bans bank-style yields — a key industry concern. Coinbase publicly backed the compromise. Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott said the committee is “in the red zone” on the vote. Prediction markets on Polymarket give the bill a 60% chance of passing the Senate.
Strong data and ETF flows back the Bitcoin bid
Spot demand got a boost from stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data — 115,000 payrolls added in April — and a single-day ETF inflow of $630 million on May 1. Bitcoin has immediate support at $80,000 and resistance at $82,800. A clean close above $82,800 could open a path to $85,000–$87,000. Miners sold about 3,400 BTC recently, but the selling pressure hasn’t broken the uptrend.
UBS makes a big indirect Bitcoin bet
UBS disclosed holding 6.31 million shares of MicroStrategy, worth $1.12 billion. That’s an indirect wager on MicroStrategy’s 818,334 BTC treasury — one of the largest corporate Bitcoin holdings. The disclosure adds to the institutional footprint in the space.
Bitcoin Hyper L2 presale raises $32.7 million
Separately, the Bitcoin Hyper Layer 2 project pulled in $32,676,096.88 in its presale, with tokens priced at $0.01368. The project promises low-latency Layer 2 processing, Solana Virtual Machine integration for DeFi smart contracts, and native BTC transfer infrastructure. Staking rewards will be available at launch.
The Senate markup vote is the next concrete milestone. If the bill clears committee, it heads to the full Senate floor — where the 60% Polymarket odds suggest a tight but plausible path.
