The CLARITY Act failed to clear the Senate's 60-vote cloture threshold on September 15, stalling the crypto market-structure bill the industry had spent the year pushing.
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act needed 60 votes to advance to full floor debate. Republicans hold just 53 Senate seats, so supporters needed at least seven Democrats to cross over, but unresolved fights over stablecoin rewards, ethics rules and illicit-finance provisions kept those votes out of reach. The House had passed the bill in July 2025 by a 294-134 margin, yet Senate negotiations never closed the gap, and Galaxy Research had already cut its odds of the bill becoming law in 2026 to around 10% heading into the vote.
With cloture failed, the bill is effectively dead for 2026, and the shrinking congressional calendar plus looming midterms make a near-term revival unlikely. Crypto's long-sought market-structure framework is back to square one.
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