The Clarity Act stalled. Bankers aren’t hitting the brakes yet on crypto dealmaking — SkimNews
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- The Clarity Act failed a Senate procedural vote on Sept. 15, drawing 49 in favor and 50 against, short of the 60 needed; negotiations had collapsed over ethics restrictions on officials' crypto interests, including those of President Trump.
- The SEC approved a temporary 'Innovation Exemption' two days after the vote to allow limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks on onchain venues, and on Oct. 1 proposed a new rule governing how investment firms custody customer crypto assets.
- The CFTC has also been removing barriers, including relief for certain software providers and updated guidance on tokenized investments and blockchain-based recordkeeping.
- Crypto M&A reached a record $9.7 billion in disclosed deal value in H1 2026, up 44% year-over-year, though announced acquisitions fell 8% to 87 deals, with the four largest transactions accounting for 76% of disclosed value.
- Payward, Kraken's parent, agreed to buy payments firm Reap for $600 million and derivatives platform Bitnomial for up to $550 million, while Nasdaq committed $100 million to Payward in an expanded commercial partnership.
- KBW's Paul McCaffery argued that the SEC and CFTC 'are already moving proactively to provide the regulatory certainty markets need,' while CoinFund's Jake Brukhman countered that the bill's failure preserves existing uncertainty rather than worsening it, leaving token-centric and pre-token deals most exposed.
Why it matters: The Clarity Act's defeat didn't freeze the market — it just shifted the rule-making power from Congress to the SEC and CFTC, and the $9.7 billion in H1 2026 deal value shows capital is still moving. Token-centric and pre-token financing deals remain most exposed to the unresolved uncertainty, while infrastructure, payments, and exchange businesses under existing SEC and CFTC guidance continue to attract buyers like Kraken's Payward and Nasdaq.
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