After the CLARITY bill failed to secure the necessary 60 votes in a U.S. Senate vote, the U.S. cryptocurrency industry and analysts are turning their attention back to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This was right after the Senate failed to advance the bill in a procedural vote on Tuesday (local time).
CLARITY Act fell short
Key points
Sangwon failed to advance the CLARITY bill in a procedural closure (cloture) vote.
The industry is now effectively relying on the SEC and CFTC to set cryptocurrency rules.
As congressional legislative deadlines tighten, warnings have emerged that the uncertainty companies face could grow even larger.
CLARITY bill vote result
In the industry, people are pointing to the **U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)** and the **U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)** as the bodies that now need to redraw the regulatory framework, right after Tuesday’s Senate vote rejected the motion to end debate on the market structure overhaul bill. The bill was designed to split crypto oversight authority between the two agencies.
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While the Senate vote was underway, bitcoin (BTC) fell to around the $76,000 level, and major crypto-related companies’ stock prices also widened their early-session losses.
**Ripple** CEO Brad Garlinghouse assessed that the SEC, led by Chair Paul Atkins, and the CFTC, led by Chair Michael Selig, would continue to speed up rulemaking in order to fill the legislative gap. At the Solana Policy Institute summit the day before, Atkins reiterated the SEC’s commitment to make crypto rules clearer, regardless of whether Congress provides additional support.
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“Companies face long-term uncertainty again,” Badyanathan’s warning
That said, not everyone believes the problem can be solved solely by updating institutional rules and regulations.
Avi Shekh Badyanathan, CLO of NEAR, said this rejection leaves companies effectively having to rely entirely on agency guidance and administrative discretion. For companies that need to set their budgets for 2027, he said, another long delay is unavoidable—meaning they will have to go back to reassessing each matter case by case and repeatedly reviewing the law. According to him, counterparties have no choice but to keep reflecting regulatory risk in their pricing.
Alvin Khan, COO of Bitget Wallet, said it remains unclear how regulations related to securities, commodities, and remittances will apply to different categories of products. Orest Gavryliak, Chief Legal Officer of 1inch, offered a somewhat more moderate view, characterizing the outcome as a “mere delay, not a final conclusion.” The explanation, he said, is that bills of this scale almost never pass in a straight line.
CLARITY bill—could it still be revived?
There are also analyses suggesting the bill has not been completely blocked. When Republican Senator Tom Tillis changed his vote from “yes” to “no” during the vote, it was a procedural choice aimed at preserving the motion to reconsider, effectively leaving room for another vote to end debate.
Badyanathan diagnosed that the next chance to address market structure comprehensively is likely to be the “next Congress.” He noted that the House canceled sessions scheduled for September 21 and 28, and that the Senate is also set to go on recess starting October 5 ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. It was reported that on the prediction market Polymarket, the probability of the bill being enacted by 2026 has fallen to around 5%.
This loss also echoes a warning issued by TD Cowen policy analyst Jarrett Zyberg. He estimated the probability of the measure being rejected at the first vote at 60%, and said he believed that if the vote were to fail, Democrats were likely to view the Republicans’ amendment as insufficient. A day earlier, Zyberg had said Democrats were effectively being told they had to deal with a “finished product, not a negotiation outcome,” putting the odds of it being enacted by the end of this year at about 25%.
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