U.S. Senate Rejects Motion to Bring CLARITY Act to Floor, Delaying Cryptocurrency Regulation

[Financial News]

The so-called Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (CLARITY Act of 2025), which would regulate cryptocurrencies at the U.S. federal level, failed to clear the Senate on the 15th (local time). As a result, a unified regulatory framework is unlikely to be established before the November 3 midterm elections, preventing cryptocurrencies from being integrated into the regulated financial system.
According to CNBC, the United States Senate rejected a procedural vote to bring the CLARITY Act of 2025, backed by the digital-asset industry, before the full chamber. Democrats opposed the bill, arguing that public officials should be restricted from profiting through digital-asset businesses. Although Republican leaders added new ethics restrictions reflecting those concerns on the 13th, the measure still failed to clear the procedural hurdle.
Some Democrats suspect that President Donald Trump’s family, which controls digital-asset companies including World Liberty Financial, is seeking to use the bill to establish digital assets within the regulated financial system and reap substantial benefits.
Bitcoin fell 3% immediately after the bill’s advancement was blocked. Shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase plunged 8%, while shares of stablecoin issuer Circle tumbled 10%.
The bill would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets, divide oversight authority between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), set registration requirements, and strengthen anti-money-laundering safeguards.
The cryptocurrency industry had hoped that the bill would be brought before the Senate, undergo full-chamber review and debate, and gain momentum. Even if it had cleared this procedural hurdle, however, further negotiations and a vote in the full chamber would still have been required. The House of Representatives would also have had to pass a bill with the same provisions.
With the bill failing even to reach the full Senate, the digital-asset industry is expected to wait until next year for the clear regulations it seeks. Before the vote, Cynthia M. Lummis, a leading cryptocurrency advocate in the Senate and a Republican from Wyoming, told reporters that if the procedural vote to bring the CLARITY Act of 2025 forward failed, "that’s it for this year."
The Senate will recess in early October for the midterm elections, while the House will recess this weekend.

[email protected] Reporter Song Kyung-jae Reporter