US Crypto Policy in Flux: CLARITY Act Stalls in Senate as House Pushes Bitcoin Reserve Bill

Washington delivered a split verdict on crypto policy this week, with one chamber stalling landmark market-structure legislation just as the other moved to lock a Bitcoin reserve into federal law.

The Senate's attempt to advance the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act hit a wall on September 15, when a cloture vote failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to open floor debate. Only 50 senators backed the motion, while 49 — nearly all Democrats, joined by a handful of Republicans — voted no. Because Republicans hold just 53 seats, the bill needed at least seven Democratic votes to succeed, and that support never materialized.

The legislation, which would formally split oversight of digital-asset markets between the SEC and the CFTC, had already cleared the House in 2025. But months of Senate negotiation failed to resolve three sticking points: ethics restrictions tied to President Trump's crypto-related income, liability rules for DeFi developers, and a stablecoin yield provision that touches over a billion dollars in exchange revenue. A revised text with added ethics safeguards, released just before the vote, wasn't enough to bring holdouts on board.

The failed vote doesn't kill the bill outright, but with Congress heading toward divided control next year, it likely closes the window for comprehensive market-structure legislation in 2026 — leaving the industry to operate under a patchwork of agency rulemaking for now.

Hours later, attention shifted to the House, where the Financial Services Committee scheduled a markup of H.R. 8957, the American Reserve Modernization Act (ARMA) of 2026, for 10:00 a.m. ET on September 16. The bipartisan bill, introduced by Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska) with Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) as co-sponsor, would write into statute the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that President Trump created by executive order in March 2025.

Under the bill, Treasury would hold seized Bitcoin for at least 20 years, barred from selling it except to pay down federal debt. Proceeds from non-Bitcoin digital assets seized by the government could be redirected either toward buying more Bitcoin or toward debt reduction, subject to a Treasury and Commerce Department study confirming any purchases stay budget-neutral, with no new taxes or borrowing involved. The bill also requires quarterly, independently audited proof-of-reserve reports.

Codifying the reserve would matter chiefly because it removes the program from the reach of a future executive order — an administration change could no longer unwind it unilaterally. The markup is only a committee-level step; the bill still needs full House passage, Senate approval, and a presidential signature before it becomes law.

Together, the two developments capture the uneven state of U.S. crypto policy heading into the fall. The Senate setback removes near-term hope for a unified market-structure framework, while the House markup shows Bitcoin-specific proposals still have bipartisan traction even when broader legislation stalls. Bitcoin and other major tokens slipped modestly around the CLARITY Act vote, reflecting how closely traders are tracking Washington's next moves.