Topic
CLARITY Act
Where the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act stands after the Senate cloture vote failed 49–50, the full legislative timeline with sources, and what the bill would change for exchanges and tokens.
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — H.R. 3633, the CLARITY Act — is the bill that would decide which US regulator owns which digital asset. Its central mechanism is a test: a token whose network is sufficiently decentralised becomes a digital commodity supervised by the CFTC, and everything else stays a security under the SEC. Around that sit registration routes for exchanges, brokers and dealers, custody rules, and a disclosure regime written for tokens rather than retrofitted from equities.
It matters because the alternative is what the market has now: an answer arrived at case by case, in enforcement actions and settlements, with no way to know in advance which side of the line a token sits on. The GENIUS Act settled the narrower question of stablecoins and was signed in July 2025. Market structure is the larger half, and it is the half that is still open.
This page is our running file on the bill. The timeline below is the legislative record with a source against each step; the status line above it is where the bill stands today, and it is dated so you can see how fresh it is. Our reporting on each stage is filed underneath.
Where this stands
Stalled. The Senate failed to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed on 15 September 2026, 49–50, so the chamber never opened debate. Nothing is scheduled, and with the calendar this late there is no realistic floor path before the session ends. The bill is not dead — it stays on the calendar and can be called up again — but the SEC and CFTC will keep setting digital-asset policy under their existing authority in the meantime.
Updated
How we got here
- Jul 17, 2025 — The House passes H.R. 3633 by 294 to 134, with 78 Democrats joining the Republican majority. our story
- Jul 18, 2025 — The GENIUS Act is signed into law, settling stablecoin rules and leaving market structure as the open question. our story
- Sep 5, 2025 — Senate Banking releases its second discussion draft, reworking the House text rather than taking it up as passed. our story
- Jan 21, 2026 — Senate Agriculture publishes the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act draft, its own half of the CFTC question. our story
- May 14, 2026 — Senate Banking advances the bill 15 to 9, the first committee vote in the Senate. our story
- Jun 1, 2026 — The bill is placed on the Senate legislative calendar, making a floor vote procedurally possible. our story
- Sep 15, 2026 — Cloture on the motion to proceed fails 49 to 50, eleven short of the sixty needed to open debate. The Democrats who had spent months negotiating the text voted no. our story
1 piece on CLARITY Act
Questions
What would the CLARITY Act actually change?+
It would put most large, decentralised tokens under the CFTC as digital commodities and leave the rest with the SEC as securities, and it would create registration routes for the exchanges, brokers and dealers that handle them. Today that division is decided after the fact, in enforcement.
Has the CLARITY Act passed?+
No. It passed the House on 17 July 2025 by 294 to 134 and cleared Senate Banking on 14 May 2026 by 15 to 9, but the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed on 15 September 2026 by 49 to 50, so the full chamber never debated it.
Why did the Senate vote fail?+
Cloture needs 60 votes and Republicans hold 53 seats, so at least seven Democrats had to cross over. The Democrats who negotiated the text — among them Gillibrand, Warner, Booker, Warnock, Gallego, Alsobrooks and Cortez Masto — voted no, leaving the motion eleven votes short.
Is the CLARITY Act the same as the GENIUS Act?+
No. The GENIUS Act covers payment stablecoins and was signed into law on 18 July 2025. The CLARITY Act covers market structure — who regulates which token and how trading venues register — and is still unfinished.
What happens to the bill now?+
It remains on the Senate legislative calendar and can be brought up again, either as it stands or folded into a later vehicle. Until something passes, the SEC and CFTC continue to set the rules through rulemaking and enforcement under existing law.