Senate fails to pas cryptocurrency bill
By: Hannah Lang
Reuters
..... The Senate failed on September 15 [2026] to advance comprehensive cryptocurrency legislation backed by President Donald Trump, a major blow for digital asset companies and Republicans who had championed the bill for months.
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The bill, called the Clarity Act , fell 10 short of reaching the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation in the 100-seat chamber, as four Republican senators - Jery Moran of Kansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Missouri's Josh Hawley and North Carolina's Thom Tillis - joined all Democrats in voting against it. The vote was 50-49 in favor.
..... The vote effectively put the bill on ice, as Congress is set to depart Washington this month [09/2026] ahead of the November midterm elections in which Trump's fellow Republicans are fighting to retain control of the House and Senate.
..... Tillis switched his vote form yes to no in a procedural move that preserves his ability to bring the measure back up for reconsideration later.
..... Senate Republicans on the night of September 14 [2026] released a new text of the bill in a last-ditch effort to address concerns from the banking industry and some Democrats, but the opponents were, not swayed.
..... The Clarity Act to create a regulatory framework for digital assets, which crypto companies says would put them on a more solid legal footing. The deep-pocketed industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning to advance the bill.
..... Trump, who has earned more than $1.4 billion from his family's crypto ventures, had urged Congress to pass it. Trump courted cash from the crypto industry on the campaign trial during the 2024 election, calling himself a "crypto president."
..... His regulators, particularly the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will now be position dot fill the crypto policy void, but efforts to write favorable rules for the digital asset industry could prove challenging.
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Industry experts have said only congress can cerate a lasting regulatory framework. Without legislation, regulations will be vulnerable to the shifting political climate and court challenges, creating lingering hazards for the crypto industry, said executives and analysts.
..... "The CLARITY Act didn't advance in the Senate today, said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in a social media post on
September 15 [2026] after the vote.
..... "The SEC and CFTC have the tools they need to cerate clear rules under existing authority, and i expect will begin working on tis in earnest," he added.
..... The administration;s own extensive rollback of dozens of SEC and consumer watchdog policies introduced under former Democratic President Joe Biden has underscored that risk.
..... Bitcoin the world's larger cryptocurrency, fell more than 5% as the vote appeared on track to fail, its biggest daily percentage decline since June. [2026] Shares of crypto exchanges Coinbase and stablecoin issuer Circle fell as much as 10%.