The U.S. Senate has blocked legislation that would establish a federal regulatory framework for digital assets, with Democrats and three Republicans voting against advancing the bill amid a dispute over ethics rules and President Donald Trump’s crypto interests.
The Senate voted 49-50 on a procedural motion to advance the CLARITY Act, short of the 60 votes required. Republicans Josh Hawley, Susan Collins and Jerry Moran joined Democrats in opposing the measure.
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The bill, backed by Republican Senator, Cynthia Lummis, had grown to 635 pages after more than a year of negotiations and sought to define the roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), establish rules for digital-asset markets and strengthen consumer protections.
Lummis argued that Republicans had incorporated extensive Democratic demands, including new restrictions involving politicians’ crypto investments.
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Despite Trump agreeing to historic checks and concessions, Lummis said:
“The Democrats still wanted more. They wanted independent outside enforcement so President Trump went back to the table and he gave more.”
Lummis said Democrats kept moving goal posts and the vote would hand China and foreign competitors the edge.
“I sat at the table with Senate Democrats working in good faith to get this done while they played games.
I have spent every single day of the past year fighting to get the CLARITY Act ready for prime time,” Lummis told the Senate.
“The once-proud Democratic party is anti-consumer and pro-illicit finance, anti-ethics, anti-free enterprise, anti-worker, anti-livable wage jobs, and pro-socialism,” said Lummis.
“The Democrats are now anti-American. Sad!”
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Democrats said the revised ethics provisions did not go far enough, particularly in addressing Trump’s financial interests in the cryptocurrency industry. Senator Elizabeth Warren argued that the legislation would not adequately prevent conflicts of interest and political self-dealing.
“I come to the Senate floor today to oppose my Republican colleagues’ efforts to jam through the CLARITY Act,” she said.
“We need crypto legislation that stops political self-dealing. [This bill] would turbo-charge its unprecedented corruption.”
Warren said Trump and his family generated $1.4 billion from crypto ventures in 2025 and argued that the bill’s proposed enforcement mechanism left significant gaps. Republicans, meanwhile, said the latest version included substantial new ethics restrictions and gave state attorneys general greater enforcement powers.
“The money just kept rolling in,” said Warren.
“Trump and his family raked in $1.4 billion from their crypto ventures.”
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The vote marks a major setback for the crypto industry’s push for comprehensive U.S. market-structure legislation. The measure had attracted support from major financial firms including BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab, and SoFi, according to Lummis’ office.
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The failure leaves U.S. digital-asset regulation largely dependent on existing SEC and CFTC authority while Congress remains divided over how far lawmakers should go in regulating the industry and the financial interests of public officials.
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