The Senate will not hold even a procedural vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act before the August recess, pushing any decision on the crypto market structure bill to mid-September at the earliest. Grayscale's head of research says a failed CLARITY Act would not immediately disrupt crypto, but could push a greater share of new investment overseas.
The Senate will not hold even a procedural vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act before the August recess, dimming the odds the bill becomes law this year. The Senate majority leader announced the decision late last Thursday, and the chances of a successful vote were already slim given unresolved disputes among lawmakers.
Ethics dispute stalls a vote
The biggest obstacle remains ethics. President Donald Trump's crypto business ties have concerned Democrats for more than a year, with lawmakers raising the issue as far back as May 2025. Trump's disclosure of $1.4 billion in profit gave those concerns a concrete number, and a person familiar with the negotiations said it dealt a serious blow to the talks.
Law enforcement provisions, agriculture-related issues, and a growing debate over stablecoin yield and rewards are also still being negotiated.
Lawmakers split on the bill's odds
Senator Angela Alsobrooks said the goal remains to get the bill passed, pointing to more than a year of bipartisan work on consumer protections, deposit-flight limits, and ethics language. Senator Cynthia Lummis said she is not ready to give up, arguing the industry needs clear rules while protecting consumers from scams. Senator Thom Tillis told Politico that the odds of passage fall sharply, citing the coming election and the lengthy break.
Industry sources are split: some say Democrats are unlikely to back the bill given the chance they flip a chamber of Congress in November, while others say a legitimate deal is still possible, with the bill's fate resting on what the Senate can negotiate in the next five weeks.
Grayscale sees investment drifting overseas
Grayscale head of research Zach Pandl said the industry will keep moving forward even without CLARITY, since regulators are expected to fill the gaps through rulemaking. He added that Bitcoin's role as a store of value and the growth of stablecoin payments would not change immediately if CLARITY fails, since the industry has functioned without such a law for almost 17 years.
Still, Pandl called a potential failure a missed opportunity, warning that without comprehensive market-structure rules, a greater share of new crypto investment may occur overseas. In July, Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor made a similar argument: "Bitcoin will succeed with or without legislation, but America needs clarity for digital assets."
Sources: CoinDesk, Bitcoin.com News
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