The CLARITY bill failed to pass this time—on September 15, a cloture vote ended 49 in favor to 50 against, falling short by 11 votes from the 60-vote threshold.
Coinbase CEO Armstrong said that the Wall Street Journal was preparing to publish a piece shifting the blame to him and Coinbase. He responded before the article ran, saying he had already opposed a flawed draft version back in January (on four points: DeFi rules, tokenization, the CFTC’s authority, and stablecoin yield). After those issues were corrected in May, he said he switched to strongly supporting it, and added that the Wall Street Journal was echoing claims made by banking industry lobbying groups.
Another report (CoinDesk) says it differently: the key issue was ethical provisions addressing conflicts of interest for certain officials with crypto-related business interests. Many Republicans were also among the “no” votes, so it’s not solely explained by the banking-lobbying narrative. For the market, what matters is which specific clauses stalled the bill this time; when it moves again, it will most likely begin with these same clauses.
Coinbase CEO Armstrong said that the Wall Street Journal was preparing to publish a piece shifting the blame to him and Coinbase. He responded before the article ran, saying he had already opposed a flawed draft version back in January (on four points: DeFi rules, tokenization, the CFTC’s authority, and stablecoin yield). After those issues were corrected in May, he said he switched to strongly supporting it, and added that the Wall Street Journal was echoing claims made by banking industry lobbying groups.
Another report (CoinDesk) says it differently: the key issue was ethical provisions addressing conflicts of interest for certain officials with crypto-related business interests. Many Republicans were also among the “no” votes, so it’s not solely explained by the banking-lobbying narrative. For the market, what matters is which specific clauses stalled the bill this time; when it moves again, it will most likely begin with these same clauses.