September 16 | U.S. CLARITY crypto bill procedural vote fails, with industry hopes for near-term regulatory rollout dashed
In the late hours of September 15 (Beijing time in the early hours of September 16), the U.S. Senate held key procedural votes on the (Digital Assets Market Clarity Act) (the CLARITY Act). The purpose of this vote was to end debate and move the bill into formal consideration. Under Senate rules, the hard threshold for approval is 60 votes in favor.
The final vote outcome was set: 50 in favor, 49 against, and 1 absent. This was far below the 60-vote threshold, so the bill was stopped in its first round and could not enter the Senate’s review process in the near term. This failure does not completely reject the bill’s principles, but rather reflects a serious lack of bipartisan consensus—there was a full 10-vote gap. Legislative progress faces extremely strong resistance.
Bill compromise and Republican demands
Before this round of voting, the bill’s leading Republican lawmaker, Lummis, had already made significant concessions and specifically incorporated demands from multiple parties: adding ethical constraint provisions for public officials, a coordinated enforcement mechanism with state attorneys general, and a plan to mitigate risks of stablecoin deposit outflows. At the same time, it clarified compliance protection details for Web3 developers.
The Republicans are clear in their stance: the U.S. urgently needs a clear federal framework for encryption regulation. If legislation is continually delayed, the U.S. will keep falling behind in global digital asset innovation and compliance, missing opportunities to take the lead in the industry.
The core reason the Democratic Party is firmly blocking it
All Democratic lawmakers voted against the bill as a bloc, becoming the key factor in the bill’s failure. Led by senior Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic camp’s core disagreements are highly unified:
The current revised version’s ethical regulation is seriously inadequate. It has not been able to effectively constrain conflicts of interest involving crypto business interests by the president and senior officials, and it cannot close loopholes that allow political families to profit through digital assets, token issuance, or stablecoin business.
Market consensus interpretation: The Democratic Party’s targeted move directly targets the Trump family’s crypto business setup. They believe the bill did not establish strict conflict-of-interest safeguards for public officials, and that rushing it into law would create major regulatory loopholes and opportunities for power trading. The Democrats are not opposed to compliant crypto regulation; they are rejecting “relaxed, let-it-roam” style legislation.
Outlook for subsequent legislation (extremely pessimistic)
1. After this procedural vote failed, the room for negotiations on the bill was drastically narrowed, with no window to restart a vote in the near term;
2. To move the bill forward, at least 10 no votes must be overturned—making cross-party bargaining extremely difficult;
3. Even if the 60-vote threshold is eventually reached in the future, the bill still has to go through multiple rounds of amendments, a second vote, and a final vote—the process is long and full of uncertainties;
4. With limited remaining legislative time in Congress, the probability of fully rolling out a comprehensive crypto regulatory bill this year is essentially zero.
Immediate market impact
After the vote results land, the crypto market faces rapid pressure: Bitcoin quickly plunges in the short term, dragging down crypto concept stocks such as Coinbase and Circle at the same time. The market fully digests the bearish expectation of “regulatory good news coming to nothing.”
Core summary
At its core, this round of voting is a party struggle between Republicans seeking development and Democrats insisting on strict regulation. The U.S. crypto compliance framework that the market was expecting has completely fallen short in the near term. The industry will return to a state of vague regulation and high-pressure wait-and-see. Near-term positives are exhausted, and uncertainty around long-term legislation rises significantly.
