coindesk.com
The U.S. Senate is finally leaping into the first procedural votes on the crypto Digital Assets Market Clarity Act, after the leadership moved early Saturday to start official floor action on the crypto market structure bill, marking the farthest progress yet for the industry's central policy effort.
But this key advance announced after a marathon overnight voting session comes after the bill has missed its window to get a vote before the Senate's summer break, leaving it in a long-shot position to get approval in September. Though the Clarity Act's chances are hanging by a thread, it would likely have been declared dead for 2026 without at least this first important movement.
"We, the undersigned senators … hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 423, [House Resolution] 3633, an act to provide for a system of regulation of the offer and sale of digital commodities by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and so forth and for other purposes," the clerk said reading the filing.
The legislation now gets into a crowded line to move through an arcane Senate procedure known as cloture, which involves a number of steps and waiting periods before a disputed piece of legislation can reach a final vote. Clarity joins a number of other unfinished bills heading toward a three-week window of Senate floor time in September — the final period before Congress leaves Washington and lawmakers devote their attention to the November midterm elections. Still, Majority Leader John Thune's move to begin this process means the Senate can get to its first procedural vote almost immediately after it returns, potentially clearing that initial hurdle on day two of the September session.
The negotiators have several weeks to come up with answers for a number of disagreements still hanging over the bill, including the details of its illicit-finance protections, the lingering dispute over stablecoin rewards and its government-ethics provision.
Clarity is likely to require the support of at least 10 Senate Democrats if it's going to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass Senate bills. So far, that support has been in doubt as the Democrats who have been most involved in trying to advance the legislation have dug in their heels over Clarity's ban against senior government officials, including President Donald Trump, backing crypto projects.