The US Senate on Tuesday voted 49-50 against advancing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, falling well short of the 60 votes needed to move the legislation forward. The vote was on cloture, the procedural threshold a bill must clear in the Senate before it can advance toward final passage. Known as the CLARITY Act, the bill would have created the first federal regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States.

LATEST: 🇺🇸 Bernstein expects the SEC and CFTC to pursue "aggressive and swift" crypto rulemaking after the CLARITY Act failed its Senate cloture vote. pic.twitter.com/1bDbBGfliV — CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) September 17, 2026
Following the vote, both regulators signaled they will move ahead using their existing authority rather than wait for Congress to act. The SEC oversees US securities markets, while the CFTC regulates US derivatives and futures markets. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency will “act decisively within the SEC’s statutory authority to deliver certainty for American investors.” CFTC Chair Mike Selig said his agency is “locked in and ready to ship its rules for the new frontier of finance.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong summed up the shift on X: “The CFTC and SEC are stepping up. Go time.” The statements set the stage for a period of active rulemaking from both regulators.

Why the CLARITY Act Failed

Democrats largely opposed the bill over concerns about President Trump’s personal crypto interests and the ethics provisions included in the legislation, while Republicans rejected a Democratic counteroffer, leaving no clear path to a compromise.

One Republican Senate aide told The Block that the bill is likely dead. Senator Thom Tillis was among those who still believe it could move forward. Analysts at Bernstein, however, called a re-vote unlikely given the limited time window before the November elections, adding that the failure removes what the firm described as a “fool-proof” shield for the industry against future political shifts.

What Rules Are Coming

Bernstein analysts published a note on Wednesday outlining what they expect from the two agencies as they fill the gap left by the failed legislation. The list includes token taxonomy rules for raising capital, developer protections for decentralized finance and self-custodial protocols, and innovation exemptions for equity tokenization. The firm also expects faster approval times for real-world asset perpetual futures and amendments to rules around federal sports event contracts. The note came one day after the Senate voten
The SEC had already taken a step in this direction on Aug. 19, proposing new rules for a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework” for crypto investment contracts. Under the proposal, companies could issue up to $5 million in tokens over four years, or up to $75 million over 12 months, while a safe harbor provision would exempt certain cryptocurrencies from being classified as investment contracts. As a proposal, the framework would still need to be finalized by the SEC before taking effect.

Atkins had signaled the move well before the vote. On July 27, he told CNBC that the SEC was “ready, willing, and able to come out with rules” if the Senate failed to pass the CLARITY Act.

JPMorgan analysts agreed that both agencies are likely to act quickly, but cautioned that rules written by agencies carry more risk than legislation. Future administrations could reverse them, and they can be challenged in court — limitations that make agency rules less durable than statutes.

With the CLARITY Act stalled, the regulatory path for crypto in the US now runs through the SEC and the CFTC rather than Congress, at least for now.

Source: CoinCentral