Senator Lummis says with CLARITY “your crypto stays yours” – but bankruptcy shields have limits
When Celsius collapsed, its Earn customers learned that the crypto in their accounts belonged to the bankruptcy estate, not to them. Sen. Cynthia Lummis cast the CLARITY Act as a fix on July 20, boiling its promise down to four words. “Your crypto stays yours.” Cynthia Lummis Member, U.S. Senator for Wyoming • U.S. Senate Share on View Profile Her X post, which had drawn a lot of attention, said the CLARITY Act would change the outcome she associated with the failures of Celsius and Voyager. Celsius is probably the best legal example because a federal court ruled directly on ownership of its Earn balances. The May 12 Senate Banking manager‘s substitute supports the direction of Lummis’s claim while attaching several conditions. Section 701 would put qualifying ancillary assets and digital commodities into federal customer-property rules when they are “held for customers” in specified Chapter 7 liquidations. The protection may not apply if the asset, account terms, or bankruptcy process falls outside the bills boundaries. A qualifying token held in custody for a customer fits the language more naturally than a balance created after the customer lends an asset or transfers title to the platform. The text leaves that lending boundary open for final legislation and future