CLARITY Act Tracker
The CLARITY Act failed a Senate cloture vote 49-50 on September 15, 2026. Here is the full legislative record and what the bill would have done.
The CLARITY Act Failed in the Senate: Cloture Vote Fell 49-50
On September 15, 2026, the Senate voted 49-50 on cloture for the CLARITY Act. It needed 60 votes just to open floor debate and fell short even of a simple majority. No Democrats voted yes, and Republicans Collins, Hawley, and Moran voted no. A last-minute Republican revision adding ethics restrictions did not resolve Democratic concerns about officials profiting from crypto. Sen. Tillis filed a motion to reconsider, which keeps a narrow procedural door open, but the bill is effectively dead for this Congress. The U.S. still has no federal crypto market-structure law. The GENIUS Act for stablecoins remains in force.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the CLARITY Act?+
The CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025) was a U.S. market-structure bill for digital assets. It would have given the CFTC jurisdiction over digital commodity spot markets, kept SEC authority over investment-contract assets, and created a path for tokens to move from security to commodity status as their networks decentralize. It passed the House but failed in the Senate in September 2026.
Has the CLARITY Act passed?+
No, and it is now considered dead. The House passed it on July 17, 2025 by a 294-134 vote, and the Senate Banking Committee approved it 15-9 on May 14, 2026. But on September 15, 2026, the full Senate voted 49-50 on cloture on the motion to proceed. That was 11 votes short of the 60 needed to even begin floor debate, so the bill did not advance.
What would the CLARITY Act have changed for my token?+
It would have drawn clearer lines: tokens treated as digital commodities would fall under the CFTC, while investment-contract assets would stay with the SEC. It also proposed a multi-year decentralization safe harbor, consumer-protection standards for exchanges, a de minimis tax exemption for small transactions, and a federal innovation sandbox. Since it failed, none of these took effect, and token classification still depends on existing law, agency guidance, and the SEC/CFTC joint taxonomy.
Why did the CLARITY Act fail?+
No Democrats voted for cloture, and four Republicans voted no, including Sen. Tillis, who switched for procedural reasons. The central dispute was ethics: Democrats said the bill did not do enough to stop public officials from profiting from crypto, and a Republican revision released two days before the vote did not change their minds. Stablecoin yield rules and DeFi/developer-protection language were also unresolved, and community banks raised concerns about the yield provisions.
Can the CLARITY Act come back?+
Only narrowly. Sen. Tillis filed a motion to reconsider, which lets Senate leadership revisit the cloture vote without starting from scratch, and the bill technically stays on the Senate calendar. With the midterms approaching and no Democratic votes on the first try, a revival this year is widely considered unlikely. Crypto market-structure legislation would most likely have to be reintroduced in the next Congress.