How the Clarity Act's Defeat Handed the SEC and CFTC the Wheel on Crypto — SkimNews
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- The Clarity Act failed a 49-50 procedural Senate vote on Tuesday, with Democrats voting as a bloc and three Republicans — Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, and Jerry Moran — joining them in opposition; 60 votes were needed to advance.
- Sen. Thom Tillis initially voted yes before switching to no, a procedural move that preserved the option to bring the bill back later; a staffer said Tillis was willing to delay the vote, but Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott's office abruptly ended negotiations without explanation.
- Both parties traded blame after the vote: bill architect Sen. Cynthia Lummis accused Democrats of playing games, while Democrats charged GOP leaders with forcing the vote to protect Trump's 'grift' in crypto.
- Seven negotiating Democrats — Angela Alsobrooks, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Warner, Cory Booker, Catherine Cortez Masto, Ruben Gallego, and Raphael Warnock — called the outcome 'a setback, but not the end' and pledged to keep working on the bill.
- Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith said Congress 'had its chance and didn't rise to it' and that agency guidance is 'the more viable path forward right now,' reflecting mounting industry fatigue.
- SEC Chair Paul Atkins explicitly tied the agency's new innovation exemption — released Thursday — to the Clarity Act's failure, opening a pathway for tokenized U.S. stocks to trade onchain.
- The CFTC issued no-action relief for passive software providers and submitted a broader crypto markets rulemaking proposal to the White House for review, with details not yet public.
Why it matters: Crypto oversight now flows through SEC and CFTC rulemaking rather than statute, after the Clarity Act's 49-50 defeat exposed Trump's crypto dealings as a bipartisan obstacle. The SEC's Thursday tokenized-stock exemption and CFTC's White House-bound rulemaking give industry immediate pathways, but seven Democrats called the vote 'a setback, not the end.'
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