💸 Congress stalled. Regulators didn't wait.

The Clarity Act — meant to give U.S. crypto markets their first federal framework, splitting oversight between the CFTC and SEC — failed its Senate cloture vote this week, 60 votes needed, not reached. Lead negotiator Sen. Lummis called its chances this year essentially dead.

The CFTC responded by sending a crypto prerule package to the White House's OIRA for review, without waiting for Capitol Hill. Text isn't public yet, but the intent is clear: build a derivatives framework on its own authority. The SEC moved in parallel, rolling out an exemption letting venues trade tokenized U.S. stocks on blockchain without registering as national exchanges.

Treasury Secretary Bessent once called agency rulemaking the fallback option. Per Decrypt, it's now just the option.