CLARITY Act Fails Cloture After 126 Concessions

The Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act failed a Senate cloture vote on Tuesday, drawing 50 votes for and 50 against and falling short of the 60 needed to advance the bill to the Senate floor. The measure would have divided federal oversight of digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Senators Cynthia Lummis, John Boozman and Tim Scott led the Senate effort. The House passed the bill in 2025.

Sponsors say they offered 126 concessions to win support, including tightened ethics language intended to limit government officials and their families from issuing or profiting from digital assets while in office. President Donald Trump accepted most of a bipartisan package to strengthen those restrictions before the vote. Opposition surfaced from 18 state attorneys general and several banking trade groups, which argued the revised text would weaken states’ ability to police crypto fraud and misconduct. Senator Elizabeth Warren opposed the bill.

Several Democrats who had participated in negotiations-Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Warner, Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock, Ruben Gallego, Angela Alsobrooks and Catherine Cortez Masto-voted against cloture. Sen. Elissa Slotkin wrote she voted no because the ethics provisions were insufficient, saying the language left room for officials to profit from crypto while in office. Podcast host Eleanor Terrett posted that a contact in the industry told her, “It died.”

Markets reacted to the procedural defeat. Bitcoin briefly fell below $75,000, a decline of more than 5% on the day. Shares of Circle Internet Financial, issuer of the USDC stablecoin, dropped about 11.6% to $86.11 by mid-afternoon trading. Other crypto-related stocks that had anticipated clearer federal rules also declined.

Without the CLARITY Act, exchanges and token issuers remain subject to overlapping requirements from the SEC and the CFTC. Supporters argued the bill would have clarified jurisdictional lines and reduced dual compliance burdens. Opponents said some concessions weakened consumer protections and limited states’ enforcement tools.

Senate leaders can schedule another cloture vote, but with fewer than 36 business days before the new Congress convenes in 2027, additional action this year appears unlikely. Industry participants continue to develop frameworks under Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets rules, in force since 2024, and some firms have shifted work to platforms built under those rules. Raiku CEO Robin Nordnes described the vote as altering the timeline rather than the likely direction of broader market adoption.