The CLARITY Act Is Dead for Now — What Happens To Crypto Next?

The CLARITY Act missed its August 7 deadline Friday, sending the Senate into its summer recess without a vote on the crypto market-structure bill that the industry has been pushing toward for months. 

The delay ends months of negotiations without resolution — but it does not end the bill’s path forward. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has already filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the CLARITY Act, and Eleanor Terrett of Crypto In America confirmed Saturday that the Senate agreed to vote on it at 2:15 PM on Tuesday, September 15, when members return from recess.

The immediate question is what the next five weeks of pressure will produce — and whether the three unresolved issues that blocked the bill before recess can be negotiated to a conclusion before September.

3 Issues Still Standing Between the CLARITY Act and 60 Votes 

As first reported by Politico, Republicans placed the blame for the delay squarely on Democrats. GOP leaders needed unanimous consent from all 100 senators to approve a time agreement that would have allowed the CLARITY Act to reach a floor vote before recess. 

Democrats refused to go along, saying they wanted bipartisan negotiations to continue rather than risk a floor vote without a deal in place. Their concern was practical — a vote without Democratic votes locked in could fail outright, collapsing the entire effort.

The ethics provision remains the central obstacle. Democrats are pushing for language that would restrict President Trump’s ability to profit from his family’s crypto businesses while in office — a demand that gained urgency after Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure revealed more than $1.4 billion in crypto-related income. 

Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona sent a joint counterproposal to the White House last week that includes a divestment requirement for Trump and a provision allowing state attorneys general to sue the Justice Department (DOJ) for failing to enforce the ethics rules. 

Beyond ethics, Democrats are also pushing for changes to the bill’s law enforcement provisions and amendments to the commodities portion overseen by the Senate Agriculture Committee. 

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, leading Democratic negotiations on the Agriculture Committee issues, said a bipartisan path exists if the ethics language is resolved properly. “I think there is a really good bipartisan pathway to getting this done if they will do on ethics what they should do,” he said.

The Votes Could Be There in September 

The bill is also facing resistance from within Republican ranks. At least two Republican senators have said they plan to vote against the CLARITY Act over concerns about crypto rewards programs — which banking groups argue mimic traditional deposit accounts and could trigger deposit flight from community banks. 

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who supports the bill and sits on the Senate Banking Committee, told reporters Friday that banking pressure has given some members pause and that the delay only allows that pressure to build. He called it a mistake not to vote before recess.

The Politico report noted that a group of approximately a dozen Democrats has signaled openness to supporting the CLARITY Act if the outstanding issues are addressed. 

That coalition, if it holds through September, would give the bill more than enough votes to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. 

Senator Cynthia Lummis, the CLARITY Act’s most vocal Republican champion, said Friday she was frustrated by the delay but committed to seeing it through. “We’ve come too far to quit now,” she said.

Featured image generated with OpenArt.