Senate Faces 60-Vote Test on Crypto Oversight Bill

The Senate is scheduled to hold a 60-vote procedural test Tuesday, Sept. 15, on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY Act, which would divide digital-asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC. Republicans say their revised, more than 600-page draft incorporates 126 Democratic requests, while Democrats have submitted a counterproposal and remain divided over ethics provisions involving President Donald Trump and other officials. The bill also faces opposition or requested changes from banking groups over stablecoin rewards, lending and potential deposit flight, from 18 state attorneys general over possible weakening of state protections, and from tribal gaming and DeFi advocates, who say developer protections and criminal-liability safeguards were weakened. Trump supports the bill and has agreed to divestment or blind-trust requirements for significant interests in crypto issuers, but critics say those measures do not adequately address conflicts of interest. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency’s Project Crypto rulemaking will proceed regardless of the vote, including proposals on token issuance, transfer-agent rules and advisers’ self-custody of crypto assets. The bill’s uncertain prospects have pushed prediction-market odds of enactment this year to roughly 16%–19%; crypto markets briefly rallied on its progress before retreating, with Bitcoin remaining range-bound.