Two weeks after the US Senate voted down the crypto industry's most important bill, the conversation in Washington has quietly shifted from "will it pass" to "what does version two look like". Here is what actually happened, and what comes next.
Why Did the CLARITY Act Fail in the Senate?
On September 15, the Senate rejected the cloture motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, by 49 votes to 50. The bill needed 60. It did not even win a simple majority.
The core of the bill was never the problem. Both parties broadly agreed on splitting oversight of digital assets between the SEC and the CFTC, with the CFTC taking the lead on spot markets for digital commodities. What sank the vote was the ethics language governing crypto holdings of public officials, a fight that became impossible to separate from President Trump's own crypto business, which reportedly earned him more than $1.2 billion last year. Senate Democrats wanted stricter rules, Republicans rejected their counteroffer hours before the vote, and a last-minute rewrite with 126 substantive changes was not enough to close the gap.
Markets took the hit immediately. Bitcoin briefly dropped below $75,000 on the day of the ...
English (US)