CLARITY Act Fails to Clear Senate Hurdle Despite Bipartisan Efforts

The CLARITY Act, a proposal to reshape the US crypto market structure, suffered a dramatic defeat in the Senate after falling short of the required 60 votes to invoke cloture. The bill, which aimed to establish clearer rules for digital assets, stalled despite significant bipartisan negotiations and concessions from President Donald Trump.

The vote was particularly damaging as several Democrats who had spent months working on the legislation ultimately opposed it. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Warner, Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock, Ruben Gallego, Angela Alsobrooks, and Catherine Cortez Masto all voted against moving forward with the bill.

One of the key sticking points was the ethics package, which emerged as a decisive fault line in the final hours before the vote. Senator Elissa Slotkin argued that the restrictions on crypto interests held by Trump and his administration officials remained too weak, stating, 'The ethics provisions in this bill are simply too thin.'

Slotkin also raised national-security concerns, suggesting that lawmakers had more work to do on money laundering and financing channels linked to terrorist groups. She expressed her opposition but left the door open for future negotiations, saying she was open to revisiting the issue.