Bitcoin Bounces Back: What Comes Next After CLARITY Act Setback?

Despite an initial dip to $75,000 after the US Senate voted against advancing the CLARITY Act on September 15, Bitcoin demonstrated resilience and has since recovered its losses. The price even exceeded $81,000 on Friday.

CryptoPotato reached out to prominent crypto experts for their take on the vote, which fell short of the 60 senators required to move the legislation forward. Alvin Kan, COO at Bitget Wallet, noted that the result should not be interpreted as Washington reversing its stance on the digital asset industry by imposing new restrictions.

The CLARITY Act aimed to establish clearer boundaries between the SEC and the CFTC and create federal rules covering the crypto markets and intermediaries. However, its failure leaves much of that work with regulators instead of Congress. Kan argued that continued uncertainty affects smaller companies disproportionately, citing data from Electric Capital indicating that the US share of global crypto devs has dropped from 38% in 2015 to 19%.

The CLARITY Act is not technically dead, as a procedural vote by Senator Thom Tillis preserves the possibility of reconsideration. However, regulatory development can continue even without Congress, as evidenced by the SEC's introduction of a five-week exemption facilitating certain tokenized-stock trading this week.