Is Clarity’s delay a blessing in disguise?: State of Crypto

The crypto industry is angry and disappointed that the Senate is not holding a procedural vote on the Clarity Act this month, but that isn’t the worst possible outcome.

U.S. Capitol Building (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)

Senate Majority Leader John announced late last Thursday that the Senate would not hold even a procedural vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act before the August recess, dimming the chances that the bill can become law this year. But the chances of a successful vote were already slim, and this delay at least gives lawmakers more time to sort out their outstanding issues.

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Judgement deferred

The narrative

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act will not make it through any Senate procedural votes in August. It’s an open question whether it will make it through the Senate when lawmakers return in mid-September. But it seems clear that the bill would not have made much progress if a vote had been held.

Why it matters

While the crypto industry wanted a vote on the Clarity Act, it would probably be better for the industry if that vote were successful. If the bill had failed a cloture vote last week, it may well have just ended the process until the next Congress. And it is unclear whether the Senate would have voted to advance Clarity before the August recess, given ongoing concerns about President Donald Trump’s crypto business ties, renewed debates about stablecoin yields and rewards and other outstanding issues being negotiated.

Breaking it down

There is a lot to unpack about the crypto industry’s failed push to hold a vote on the Clarity Act this month. According to numerous legislative aides and industry sources, the sheer number of unresolved issues posed an almost insurmountable wall for even a successful procedural vote, and it became increasingly clear over the course of the week that it would be difficult to even hold that vote.

The biggest issue, as CoinDesk and other news outlets have reported for months now, is ethics. President Donald Trump’s crypto business ties have alarmed Democrats for over a year, with lawmakers expressing concerns as far back as May 2025 during the negotiations on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act). Trump’s reporting of $1.4 billion in profit provided a concrete representation of those concerns, with a source familiar describing it as the “kill shot” for negotiations on Friday.

But there are other outstanding issues. Law enforcement provisions are still being debated, some agriculture-related issues are being worked out, and recently, a growing number of lawmakers have expressed concerns about stablecoin yield and rewards.

These issues mean that if a vote were held, it very well may have failed. The GENIUS Act fell short in a vote before it passed the Senate as well, so it’s not as if a failed motion to proceed or initial cloture vote would spell the end of Clarity. The timing, however — three months out from an election and just as lawmakers prepare to break for over a month — would have severely harmed the bill’s ultimate chances of passage.

What those chances look like now depends on who you ask. Senator Angela Alsobrook said in a statement shared with CoinDesk that the goal remains to get the bill passed.

“We’ve worked for over a year on a bipartisan basis to protect consumers, limit deposit flight, fight illicit finance and include a fair deal on ethics,” she said in the statement. “We will continue our work — getting Clarity Act right remains our goal.”

Senator Cynthia Lummis similarly said in a statement posted online that “we’ve come too far to quit now.”

“I will not give up because I believe to my core that this industry deserves to thrive with clear rules of the road on U.S. soil, that consumers deserve to be protected from scams and have the confidence to participate in our digital economy, and that law enforcement deserves the tools they need to hold bad actors accountable,” she said.

But industry participants are more split on the bill’s odds of passage. One person following the bill said it would be difficult to convince enough Democrats to vote for the bill for a variety of reasons, ranging from the likelihood that they’ll flip at least one chamber of Congress in the November election to the aforementioned ethics concerns. The White House would have to agree to a substantive change to the ethics language because Democrats who would otherwise vote for the bill are unlikely to blink at this stage, the person said.

A Senate staffer similarly told CoinDesk that a “legitimate” deal would be needed to get Democratic votes for the bill.

There was talk that a vote would at least get lawmakers on the record on Clarity, as Semafor reported last month, which could shape how Fairshake and other crypto political action committees spend their funds in the final weeks of the election season. A source familiar with the matter laid the blame for the lack of a vote on Democrats, telling CoinDesk on Thursday night that a vote would have alienated the crypto industry and driven campaign dollars away from them.

But the other staffer said the fact that Republicans are also now coming out with concerns about the bill, even as Democrats like Alsobrooks and Ruben Gallego continue negotiating, suggests that the blame cannot be laid at either major party.

Senator Thom Tillis told Politico that “the odds drop precipitously” on Friday, citing the election as well, alongside the lengthy break.

But two of the people who spoke to CoinDesk said the bill has a legitimate shot at passage, especially given the August deadline was more of what the crypto industry hoped for than a hard-and-fast rule.

As has been the case, what that shot looks like will depend on what the Senate can negotiate in the next five weeks.

This week

We’re taking a breather, maybe.

If you’ve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me at nik@coindesk.com or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.

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See ya’ll next week!