CLARITY Act Fails 49-50 Senate Vote as Democrats, Banks Ally

The US Senate rejected the CLARITY Act 49-50 on September 15, 11 votes short of the 60 needed to advance, sinking crypto’s flagship market-structure bill weeks before the November midterms.

The defeat came from an unlikely pairing. Senate Democrats objected to the bill’s ethics provisions, centered on President Trump’s reported $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency gains during 2025, while the banking lobby fought provisions that would let stablecoin issuers offer yield-bearing products. Banks saw those products as a threat to their deposit base, and the two objections together denied the bill its floor majority.

Two objections, one outcome

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who co-authored earlier crypto regulatory proposals, was among those who reversed course and voted against the bill. Her defection mattered because the legislation had cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 in May with bipartisan support, which gave crypto advocates reason to believe the full Senate would follow.

The bill would have handed primary oversight of digital asset markets to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than the Securities and Exchange Commission, the core structural change the industry sought. Its failure leaves that shift shelved for the rest of the current Congress.

The crypto lobby, which has spent an estimated $100 million to $225 million across recent election cycles, could not overcome the opposition on either front at once, and the vote failed 49-50.

Markets repriced within hours of the vote. Coinbase shares fell 12%, Circle dropped 13% and Bitcoin slid more than 5% intraday on September 15.

With the midterms weeks away, there is effectively zero chance of the legislation being revived in the current Congress.