What Is the CLARITY Act? Where the Crypto Bill Stands in the Senate

Last Updated: November 3, 2026

The CLARITY Act, formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (H.R. 3633), is a U.S. crypto market structure bill that would split oversight of crypto markets between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The House passed it on July 17, 2025, but on September 15, 2026 a Senate procedural vote to take it up failed 49 to 50, 11 votes short of the 60 needed, so as of November 3, 2026 it is not law.

Crypto investors often hear about the bill as a possible catalyst for tokens such as XRP. This guide explains what it would change, how it differs from the GENIUS Act stablecoin law, why the Senate vote failed and what could happen next.

Where the CLARITY Act Stands Now (November 3, 2026)

• Status: Passed by the House, not law. The last Senate action on the bill was on September 15, 2026, according to the official bill record.
• Senate vote: Cloture on the motion to proceed failed 49 to 50 in roll call vote 234. All 49 yes votes came from Republicans. Every Democrat and independent who voted said no, along with Republicans Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Jerry Moran and Thom Tillis. Democrat Chris Coons did not vote.
• Still alive on paper: Tillis entered a motion to reconsider the vote, and the bill remains on the Senate Legislative Calendar as Calendar No. 423.
• No new vote scheduled: No later Senate vote had been held as of November 3. The Senate’s tentative 2026 schedule lists a state work period from October 5 to November 6.
• Next window: The lame-duck session after today’s midterm elections. Representative French Hill, who introduced the bill, said he still hopes to pass it then, Bitcoin.com News reported on October 8.
• Deadline: The 119th Congress ends on January 3, 2027. If the bill is not law by then, the process restarts in the new Congress, Bitcoin.com News noted after the vote.

Key Takeaways

• The bill would give the CFTC authority over spot markets for “digital commodities” such as bitcoin and keep an SEC role over fundraising and tokens sold as investment contracts.
• The House passed it 294 to 134 on July 17, 2025, with 78 Democrats joining 216 Republicans. The Senate Banking Committee approved its version 15 to 9 on May 14, 2026.
• A Senate procedural vote failed 49 to 50 on September 15, 2026. No Democrat voted yes, and four Republicans voted no.
• The main disputes are ethics rules for officials’ crypto ventures, including the president’s family, plus stablecoin yield, consumer protection and illicit finance safeguards.
• A motion to reconsider keeps the bill alive, but no new vote is scheduled. Meanwhile, the SEC and CFTC are writing crypto rules under their existing powers.

What Is the CLARITY Act?

For more than a decade, U.S. law has not clearly said when a crypto asset is a security and when it is a commodity. The SEC and the CFTC have both claimed jurisdiction, and court cases have not settled the question for the whole market. The CLARITY Act tries to settle it by writing a regulatory framework for digital asset markets into federal law.

In practice, the bill would decide which agency registers crypto exchanges and brokers, which rules protect customers and how decentralized finance (DeFi) fits in. The crypto industry has treated it as its top priority in Congress since the GENIUS Act, which became law on July 18, 2025 and covers payment stablecoins. “Going into 2026, market structure is still [the] number one priority for everybody,” Mason Lynaugh of the advocacy group Stand With Crypto told Cointelegraph in November 2025.

In the Senate, the Banking Committee replaced the House text with a substitute titled the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2026, according to the official bill record. Separately, the SEC, joined by the CFTC, issued an interpretation in March 2026 that sorts crypto assets into categories such as digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins and digital securities. A future commission can change an interpretation, while a law would fix those lines in statute.

What the Bill Would Do

• Define digital commodities: A digital commodity is a digital asset whose value is “intrinsically linked” to the use of its blockchain, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Securities, derivatives and stablecoins are excluded. Under the House version, a blockchain counts as mature only if no person or group under common control controls it, and certain holders must own less than 20% of the token’s outstanding units.
• Give the CFTC spot market authority: The CFTC would get exclusive jurisdiction over digital commodity trading on registered platforms, including spot markets, and digital commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers would register with it. A provisional registration regime would cover firms until the new rules are in place.
• Keep an SEC role in fundraising: The SEC would keep authority over primary market sales, with a limited registration exemption for raising up to $75 million over 12 months, CRS says. Issuers whose blockchains are not yet mature would face extra reporting.
• Set customer protections: Exchanges could not commingle their own assets with customer assets, would follow core principles on trade monitoring, recordkeeping and conflicts of interest, and would fall under the Bank Secrecy Act. The bill would also update the Bankruptcy Code for customer funds held by exchanges.
• Address DeFi and developers: DeFi activities such as validating would be excluded from the bill’s requirements but not from the agencies’ anti-fraud and anti-manipulation powers. A fact sheet on the Senate Banking Committee’s website says the Senate text would shield developers who do “not control customer funds” from money transmitter rules and direct an SEC rulemaking for DeFi trading protocols that focuses on “control of the protocol.”
• Set stablecoin yield rules: The Senate text includes stablecoin yield rules that still worried the banking industry before the September vote, Decrypt reported. The GENIUS Act already bars stablecoin issuers from paying holders interest or yield.
• Limit a U.S. CBDC: The House-passed bill’s official title also covers barring Federal Reserve banks from offering certain products directly to individuals and prohibiting the use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for monetary policy.

How Could the CLARITY Act Affect the Crypto Market?

If it became law, the CLARITY Act would mainly change how crypto trading is supervised in the United States, not the price of any token directly. Its clearest effects would be on market structure:

• Who supervises trading: U.S. exchanges, brokers and dealers that handle digital commodities would register with the CFTC and meet federal customer protection rules.
• Which tokens can list: A digital commodity could trade on an exchange only if its blockchain is mature or has achieved decentralized control, according to the CRS summary of the House bill.
• How projects raise money: Token issuers could raise up to $75 million over 12 months under a limited SEC exemption, with disclosure duties.
• How durable the rules are: A statute is harder to change than agency rules, which law firm Troutman Pepper Locke has noted can be reversed under a future administration, Bitcoin.com News reported on October 8.

How prices would react to passage cannot be known in advance, but markets have moved on news about the bill before. As the September 15 vote approached, Bitcoin traded near $76,212, down 3.3%, and total crypto market value had fallen 2.99% to about $2.6 trillion, Decrypt reported. After the result, Polymarket traders cut the odds of the bill becoming law in 2026 from 29.5% to 6.5%, and two days later Uniswap’s token rose 19.8% in 24 hours as the SEC and CFTC eased rules for tokenized stocks and trading software, The Defiant reported.

Many other forces also move prices. For reference, Bitcoin traded near $76,925 at 12:06 UTC on November 3, 2026, down 1.1% over 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap, and the Crypto Fear and Greed Index from alternative.me stood at 26, in Fear.

CLARITY Act vs GENIUS Act: What Is the Difference?

The GENIUS Act is a law that regulates payment stablecoins, while the CLARITY Act is a pending bill that would set rules for the rest of the crypto market. Blockchainreporter’s comparison below sets out the main differences as of November 3, 2026.

In short, a stablecoin issuer answers to banking regulators under the GENIUS Act, while a crypto exchange listing bitcoin would answer to the CFTC under the CLARITY Act if it became law. Rule writing for the GENIUS Act is already under way, including the OCC’s final stablecoin rule in October 2026.

Related Bills: The BITCOIN Act and Others

• BITCOIN Act: Sen. Cynthia Lummis’s bill to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The Treasury would buy one million bitcoin over five years and hold them for at least 20 years, funded partly by Federal Reserve remittances and the Exchange Stabilization Fund, with the coins stored in secure facilities across the U.S., according to CRS. The BITCOIN Act of 2024 (S. 4912, introduced July 31, 2024) died in committee; the 2025 version (S. 954, introduced March 11, 2025, with five Republican cosponsors) has sat in the Senate Banking Committee since then. A House version, H.R. 2032, has not moved either.
• American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 (H.R. 8957): Rep. Nick Begich’s House bill, which would write the U.S. bitcoin reserve into law according to our coverage, cleared the House Financial Services Committee 28 to 21 on September 16, 2026. It has not had a floor vote.
• GENIUS Act: Law since July 18, 2025, taking effect January 18, 2027, as shown in the table above.

Timeline: How We Got Here

• May 29, 2025: Rep. French Hill of Arkansas introduces H.R. 3633.
• June 10, 2025: The House Financial Services Committee (32 to 19) and the House Agriculture Committee (47 to 6) approve amended versions.
• July 17, 2025: The House passes the bill 294 to 134, with 78 Democrats voting yes. The same day, the House passes the GENIUS Act, which President Trump signs on July 18.
• September 18, 2025: The Senate receives the bill and refers it to the Banking Committee.
• November 2025: The Senate Banking and Agriculture committees have released discussion drafts that build on the House bill, Cointelegraph reports.
• May 14, 2026: Senate Banking approves its substitute 15 to 9. Democrats Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks vote yes, and Gallego says his vote “does not guarantee a vote on the floor,” The Hill reports.
• June 1, 2026: The bill is placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar, making it eligible for floor action.
• July 22, 2026: Seven Democratic negotiators say the Republican text “falls short” on ethics, consumer protection and illicit finance.
• August 8, 2026: A cloture motion on the motion to proceed is filed, before the Senate’s August 10 to September 11 break.
• September 15, 2026: Cloture fails 49 to 50, short of the 60 votes required, and Tillis enters a motion to reconsider.
• September 17, 2026: The SEC and CFTC announce new crypto actions under their existing powers.
• October 14, 2026: Patrick Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, announces his exit after his detail expired. A White House official tells The Hill the bill “will continue to be a priority for the President.”
• November 3, 2026: Americans vote in the midterm elections. The Senate’s state work period runs through November 6.

Why the Senate Vote Failed

The fight was not mainly about how to divide work between the SEC and the CFTC. Ethics was the main sticking point: Democrats wanted rules on federal officials’ crypto ventures that would clearly cover the president and his family, and Sen. Cynthia Lummis said Republicans had already given Democrats more than 120 of their requests.

Republicans and the White House offered an ethics framework covering the president, vice president, members of Congress and federal judges. It would bar federally elected officials, judges and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, enforceable by state attorneys general with no expiration date, Decrypt reported on the day of the vote. Democrats said that offer still left gaps, as detailed below. Stablecoin yield rules, consumer protection and illicit finance safeguards also remained open, according to Decrypt and the Democratic negotiators’ July statement.

No Democrat voted yes, and four Republicans, Collins, Hawley, Moran and Tillis, voted no. Tillis voted no to preserve his right to move to reconsider, and he made that motion about a minute after the result was announced, The Defiant reported. Read our report on the Senate vote.

Why Do Senate Democrats Oppose the CLARITY Act?

Senate Democrats who voted no said the bill’s ethics rules did not go far enough, especially for the crypto businesses of the president and his family, and several said its consumer protection and illicit finance safeguards needed more work. Their stated objections:

• Ethics and the president’s crypto ventures: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Banking Committee’s top Democrat, wrote on X that Senate Republicans were trying to push through a bill that would benefit President Trump’s crypto interests, Bitcoin.com News reported. She planned to argue that the ethics rules left gaps around enforcement and did not clearly cover the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial venture, according to Decrypt.
• Gaps in the text: On July 22, 2026, seven Democratic negotiators, Sens. Mark Warner, Angela Alsobrooks, Cory Booker, Catherine Cortez Masto, Ruben Gallego, John Hickenlooper and Raphael Warnock, said the Republican text “falls short” and that provisions on “ethics for elected officials, consumer protection, illicit finance,” conflicts of interest and market integrity had to be strengthened.
• Conditions on support: When he voted for the committee version in May, Gallego said his vote “does not guarantee a vote on the floor,” The Hill reported.

Not every Democrat opposes crypto legislation. Seventy-eight House Democrats voted for the bill in July 2025, and the seven Senate negotiators said they had been “working in good faith” with Republicans for a year and would keep going “to get this over the finish line.”

What Supporters Say

Supporters say the bill would protect consumers and keep the United States a leader in crypto, and that Republicans already made major concessions to win Democratic votes:

• Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.): Before the vote she posted “It’s now or never for the Clarity Act” and told reporters “we’ve given them over 120 of their requests,” Decrypt reported, citing Punchbowl News. Afterward she said “Senate Democrats proved they were never truly serious about protecting consumers and preserving American leadership,” according to Bitcoin.com News.
• Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.): The Banking Committee chair added amendments during the May markup at Democrats’ request to “make this a bipartisan outcome,” The Hill reported.
• The White House: After Witt’s exit, a White House official said the bill “will continue to be a priority for the President,” according to The Hill on October 15.
• Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.): “I still have hopes that we can get it passed in the lame duck session in Congress,” he said on Fox Business, Bitcoin.com News reported on October 8.

What Regulators Are Doing Instead

Two days after the vote, both agencies moved under their existing powers, and more steps followed:

• SEC, September 17: The SEC issued a five-year conditional exemption that lets tokenized versions of listed U.S. stocks trade on permissioned automated market makers, The Defiant reported. Read more in our coverage of the SEC Innovation Exemption and our guide to tokenized stocks.
• CFTC, September 17: The same morning, CFTC staff extended introducing-broker relief to passive software providers across the industry.
• SEC rulemaking: The SEC’s Regulation Crypto Assets proposal, published in the Federal Register on August 21, 2026, would create two registration exemptions for crypto asset offerings and a conditional safe harbor from the “investment contract” definition. The comment period closed on October 20, 2026.
• SEC custody rules: On October 6, the SEC published proposed crypto custody rules for investment advisers and funds, with comments due December 7.
• CFTC rulemaking: On October 13, the CFTC published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on crypto asset transactions and markets, with comments due December 14.

Agency rules are less durable than a law. A future commission can rewrite them and courts can strike them down, and law firm Troutman Pepper Locke has warned that agency rules can be reversed under a future administration, Bitcoin.com News reported. An advance notice is also only a first step: the CFTC would still have to propose and adopt a final rule before binding requirements apply.

What Happens Next

Under Senate rules, only a senator who voted on the prevailing side of a failed cloture vote can move to reconsider it, which is why Tillis’s no vote matters: his motion keeps open a way to hold the cloture vote again. No new vote is scheduled, and the official record shows no Senate action on the bill since September 15.

The Senate’s tentative 2026 schedule lists a state work period from October 5 to November 6, so the earliest realistic window is the lame-duck session that follows today’s midterm elections and runs until the 119th Congress ends on January 3, 2027. If Congress does not finish the bill by then, the process restarts in January 2027, Bitcoin.com News noted after the vote.

To become law, the bill would first need 60 votes to clear the procedural hurdle, then Senate passage. Because the Senate text differs from the House version, both chambers would then have to agree on identical text before the president could sign it.

Prediction markets turned skeptical after the vote. Polymarket’s odds of the bill becoming law in 2026 fell from 29.5% on September 14 to 6.5% after the result, The Defiant reported. See our earlier report on Polymarket odds and follow updates in crypto news today.

How Do the Midterms and Politics Affect Future Crypto Rules?

Politics shapes crypto rules through the congressional calendar and through who controls Congress and the agencies. Americans vote in the midterm elections today, November 3, 2026, and control of Congress “could shape the prospects for pending crypto legislation,” CoinDesk wrote in its November 2 week-ahead calendar.

• Lame duck: Hill hopes to pass the bill before the new Congress begins, while Bitcoin.com News described a lame-duck vote as a long shot on September 15, with spending bills and other unfinished business competing for floor time.
• Stated positions: The White House calls the bill a priority. The seven Democratic negotiators said in July they would keep working with Republicans “to get this over the finish line,” while insisting that ethics, consumer protection and illicit finance provisions be strengthened.
• Agencies: With Congress stalled, the SEC and CFTC are setting crypto policy through proposals, exemptions and staff relief, which future commissions could change.

For how other countries regulate crypto, see our guide to global crypto regulation.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or legal advice. Regulatory developments are ongoing. Always verify the current status through official government sources before making decisions.

FAQ

What is the current status of the CLARITY Act in the Senate?
As of November 3, 2026, the CLARITY Act is stalled in the Senate. A procedural vote to take it up failed 49 to 50 on September 15, 2026, short of the 60 votes needed. Sen. Thom Tillis entered a motion to reconsider, the bill remains on the Senate calendar, and no new vote is scheduled. The earliest window is the lame-duck session after the midterm elections.

Did the CLARITY Act pass the Senate?
No. The House passed the CLARITY Act 294 to 134 on July 17, 2025, but the Senate has not passed it. On September 15, 2026, a cloture vote on the motion to proceed failed 49 to 50, 11 votes short of the 60 needed to begin consideration. Because the Senate has not acted, the CLARITY Act is not law.

Why do Senate Democrats oppose the CLARITY Act?
Democrats who voted no said the ethics rules did not go far enough to cover the crypto ventures of the president and his family, including World Liberty Financial. Seven Democratic negotiators also said in July 2026 that provisions on consumer protection, illicit finance, conflicts of interest and market integrity had to be strengthened, while saying they wanted to keep negotiating with Republicans.

What do supporters of the CLARITY Act say?
Supporters say the bill would protect consumers and keep the United States a leader in crypto. Sen. Cynthia Lummis said Republicans had given Democrats more than 120 of their requests, and Banking Committee chair Tim Scott added amendments to win bipartisan support. The White House calls the bill a priority, and Rep. French Hill hopes to pass it in the lame-duck session.

Is the CLARITY Act dead?
Not formally. Sen. Thom Tillis entered a motion to reconsider the failed vote, which keeps a path open, and the bill remains on the Senate Legislative Calendar. No new vote is scheduled, however. If Congress does not pass it before the 119th Congress ends on January 3, 2027, supporters would have to start the process again in the new Congress.

When will the CLARITY Act be voted on again?
There is no date. The Senate’s tentative schedule keeps senators away from Washington until November 6, so the earliest window is the lame-duck session after the November 3 midterm elections. Supporters would still need 60 votes, which they failed to reach in September over ethics and other open issues. After that vote, Polymarket traders cut their odds of passage in 2026 to 6.5%.

How would the CLARITY Act affect the crypto market if passed?
It would mainly change how crypto trading is supervised in the United States. Exchanges, brokers and dealers would register with the CFTC, digital commodities would need a mature blockchain to trade on an exchange, and projects could raise up to $75 million over 12 months under an SEC exemption. How prices would react cannot be known, although markets have moved on news about the bill.

How do the midterm elections affect the CLARITY Act?
The November 3, 2026 midterm elections decide who controls the next Congress, which begins in January 2027. The current Congress can still act in the lame-duck session after the election, which is when Rep. French Hill hopes to pass the bill. If it is not law by January 3, 2027, it would have to be reintroduced and start over in the new Congress.

What would the CLARITY Act change for crypto?
It would give the CFTC exclusive authority over spot markets for digital commodities such as bitcoin and require crypto exchanges, brokers and dealers to register with it. The SEC would keep oversight of fundraising and tokens sold as investment contracts. The bill also sets customer protections, excludes certain DeFi activities from its rules and includes provisions against a U.S. central bank digital currency.

How is the CLARITY Act different from the GENIUS Act?
The GENIUS Act became law on July 18, 2025 and covers payment stablecoins: who may issue them, what reserves they must hold and how they are redeemed. It takes effect January 18, 2027. The CLARITY Act is a broader bill, still pending, that would decide whether the SEC or the CFTC oversees the rest of the crypto market, from tokens and exchanges to DeFi.

What are the key features of the BITCOIN Act?
The BITCOIN Act, introduced by Sen. Cynthia Lummis in July 2024 and again in March 2025, would create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The Treasury would buy one million bitcoin over five years and hold them for at least 20 years, with purchases funded partly by Federal Reserve remittances. The 2025 version, S. 954, has not advanced beyond the Senate Banking Committee.

Data sources: GovInfo bill status records (H.R. 3633, S. 954, S. 4912, H.R. 8957), U.S. Senate (roll call vote 234 and the 2026 schedule), Office of the Clerk of the House (roll call 199), Congressional Research Service, Senate Banking Committee, Federal Register, statements by senators, The Hill, Decrypt, The Defiant, Bitcoin.com News, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, CoinMarketCap and alternative.me, all checked November 3, 2026.