Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he still expects a floor vote on the CLARITY Act this week, even with only four legislative days left before the August recess. The Blockchain Association has meanwhile pushed back on a National Sheriffs' Association letter that claims the bill opens loopholes for decentralized finance. The math stays tight: the bill needs 60 votes, and Galaxy Research just cut its passage odds from 50% to 30%.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he still expects a floor vote on the CLARITY Act this week. The chamber has just four legislative days left before its August recess.
That call reverses a position Thune held only weeks earlier. As recently as July 23, he told reporters he did not expect the bill to reach the floor before the recess, citing insufficient votes. Yet the Senate skipped a scheduled floor vote on Monday, leaving just four legislative days before the recess. The chamber breaks on August 7 and does not return until September 14.
The vote math stays tight
The bill needs 60 votes to clear the Senate, and Republicans hold only 53 seats, so at least seven Democrats must cross over. According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's read on the bill's progress: "one-yard line." Even so, Galaxy Research's own odds are just 30%, cut this week from 50%. JPMorgan prices passage odds around 37%. Polymarket bettors sit closer to 26%.
Blockchain Association rebuts sheriffs on DeFi claims
The fight widened after the National Sheriffs' Association sent Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a July 31 letter claiming the CLARITY Act creates broad exemptions for decentralized finance, crypto mixers, and cross-chain bridges that could make it harder to fight money laundering.
In response, the Blockchain Association pushed back on Aug. 3, arguing the sheriffs misread the bill: any platform that controls customer funds still must follow Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering, and sanctions rules. The industry group also pointed to $3 billion in the bill for state and local law enforcement to investigate crypto crime. The sharpest dispute centers on Section 10604, which shields non-custodial software developers who never take control of customer assets from being regulated as money transmitters; the sheriffs want it narrowed, while the association's executive director, Summer Mersinger, says the bill keeps a clear line between financial services and software development.
More than 1,200 tech companies have pushed the Senate to move quickly. A separate coalition of 134 bank leaders has raised alarms over provisions they want changed before final passage. If Thune's promise holds this week, the CLARITY Act would become the first comprehensive federal market-structure law for digital assets, splitting oversight between the SEC and the CFTC depending on how a token is classified.
Sources: Bitcoin News, Coinpedia Fintech News
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