Published September 16, 2026
The Clarity Act didn’t pass on Tuesday, September 15, in the Senate vote. The Senate voted to block the bill from advancing, dealing a major blow to the crypto industry’s push for a comprehensive market structure framework.
The procedural vote got 50 votes for and 49 against - far below the 60 votes required to clear the cloture hurdle. The failed vote leaves the bill stalled on Capitol Hill after months of negotiations focused on building bipartisan support.
On Sunday, Republicans released a modified version of the bill, adding new ethics regulations to address Democratic concerns about restricting the ability of public officials to profit from crypto ventures.
However, those weren’t enough to address Democratic concerns regarding limiting the ability of public officials to profit from crypto ventures.
The Clarity Act was supposed to create an outline for crypto regulation, distribute authority between the SEC and the CFTC, define the need for registration, and strengthen provisions on money laundering.
It turned out to be a shockingly bad outcome for the crypto community, which believed that it would gather enough votes from the senators to move forward. Bitcoin dropped by 4%, reaching below $76,000, while the stock prices of Coinbase and Circle declined by 8% and 10%, respectively.