TLDR The Clarity Act failed in the U.S. Senate on Sept. 15 with 49 votes in favor and 50 against. Bitcoin is up nearly 11% and ether about 12% since the vote, with total crypto market value n
The crypto market has climbed since the Clarity Act failed in the U.S. Senate on Sept. 15. Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan says the industry may be better off without the bill.
In a memo posted Wednesday, Hougan argued that crypto lost the certainty of a federal law. But he said it also avoided compromises that would have limited key parts of the industry.
The Senate vote to advance the bill was 49 in favor and 50 against. The bill needed 60 votes after three years of negotiation.
Many expected prices to fall after the vote. Instead, the opposite happened.
Hougan wrote that Bitcoin rose 8% and Ethereum gained 7% in the two weeks after the vote. Some smaller tokens rose much more, including NEAR at 104%, Uniswap at 49% and Avalanche at 43%. Crypto stocks also performed well.
He said many of the best performers use protocol revenue to buy back their own tokens. These include Hyperliquid, NEAR, Uniswap, Lighter and Pump.
Hougan pointed to stablecoins as one area that gained. The final Clarity text banned platforms from paying stablecoin interest or yield “in any form,” with penalties up to $5 million per violation.
With the bill stalled, the GENIUS Act passed in 2025 remains in effect. It bars stablecoin issuers from paying interest but does not address exchanges. Hougan said this lets platforms like Coinbase keep offering rewards on stablecoin balances.
He also said established exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken benefit. Clarity would have created a national license for spot crypto exchanges, making it easier for new rivals to enter. It also would have limited firms that act as both exchange and broker.
Clarity would have directed the SEC to study tokenized securities. Hougan said that process could have taken years.
Instead, the SEC issued a five-year “innovation exemption” two days after the vote. It allows tokenized U.S. stocks to trade through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools.
The order exempts these venues from registering as exchanges. It covers only listed U.S. stocks and caps the volume each venue can handle. Hougan named Securitize, which tokenizes funds for BlackRock, Apollo and KKR, as a key beneficiary.
Last week, SEC staff released an updated FAQ on token buybacks. It said announcing a buyback for an already functioning network does not by itself make a token sale an investment contract.
Hougan said the main risk is that regulation is not law. A new administration in January 2029 could appoint new leaders at the SEC and CFTC who take a harder line.
He said he is not overly worried, since large financial firms will have been building on blockchains for years by then. “Crypto sacrificed long-term certainty and got better rules, faster,” he wrote.
Since the Sept. 15 vote, Bitcoin is up nearly 11% and ether has added about 12%, according to The Block. Total crypto market value now sits at roughly $2.95 trillion, up from $2.65 trillion on the day of the vote.
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