The U.S. Senate will hold a procedural vote on CLARITY Act on September 15 to decide whether this bill on the structure of the crypto market will proceed to formal debate. The Republican Party rejected a last-minute amendment proposed by the Democratic Party before the vote, and as a result, the bill continues to face the hurdle of requiring 60 votes to pass.
The 60-vote threshold determines the next step.
This vote is regarding H.R.3633, which is the House of Representatives version of the 'Digital Asset Markets Clarification Act'. If the motion is passed, then the Senate can begin formal deliberations, but this does not mean that the bill has been passed, nor will it be directly sent to the President for signature.
The Republican Party currently holds 53 seats in the Senate, so even with full support from their members, they still need to secure at least 7 votes from Democratic or independent senators to reach the 60 votes required to end the debate.
If the vote fails, the Senate's chances of re-introducing the bill before the mid-term elections in November will significantly diminish. One reason is that the time available for voting in Congress will be limited in the coming period, and the House of Representatives' voting schedule for September has also been compressed.
Ethical guidelines are the main point of disagreement.
Currently, the disagreements between the two parties are primarily focused on government ethics provisions. Some Democratic senators believe that the Republican version of these regulations does not impose strict enough restrictions on presidents, their relatives, and other federal officials from engaging in digital asset business, and it is also unclear who would be responsible for enforcing the rules in case of violations.
The dispute also involves whether the state attorney general has sufficient authority to take direct action when relevant restrictions are violated. The potential conflicts of interest surrounding the Trump family's cryptocurrency business have also become a focal point for continuous pressure from the Democratic Party.
Reuters previously reported that the Republican revised draft had included provisions to limit public officials from profiting from encryption-related activities and granted state attorneys general certain law enforcement powers. However, Democrats still believe that these arrangements are not sufficient to create an effective restraint.
DeFi and regulatory division of labor still need to be coordinated
In addition to ethical concerns, the Democratic Party also requests adjustments to the DeFi clause in the bill. The current text provides protection for some non-hosted software developers, verifiers, and node operators, while also requiring federal agencies to address those protocols that still retain actual control.
Another controversy arises from the boundary between predictive markets and tribal gambling regulation. The latest Democratic proposal is said to include protections for tribal gambling laws, in order to prevent event contracting platforms under federal regulation from circumventing state and tribal-level gambling rules.
If the bill is ultimately passed, it will establish basic federal rules for the classification of digital assets and reassign regulatory responsibilities between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Supporters believe that this will reduce the long-term reliance on institutional interpretations in U.S. crypto regulation.
Additional information:The House of Representatives passed H.R.3633 in July 2025 with a vote of 294 to 134. Even if the Senate subsequently passes a revised version, the House of Representatives will still need to accept the changes or continue to coordinate with the Senate to unify the text.
