The US Senate's failure to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act dealt a significant blow to the crypto industry's long-running push for a comprehensive federal market structure framew
The US Senate's failure to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act dealt a significant blow to the crypto industry's long-running push for a comprehensive federal market structure framework. But Congress is not finished with digital assets just yet, with two further crypto-related bills now on the agenda.
The US Senate failed to clear a key procedural hurdle for the Clarity Act, with senators voting 49 to 50 to reject cloture on the motion to proceed, well short of the 60 votes required to advance the legislation.Negotiators for both parties had worked through more than 600 pages of legislative compromise, but final sticking points, including ethics provisions intended to curtail senior government officials from maintaining crypto business ties, proved insurmountable.
The bill would have created a new federal regulatory framework for the $2.3 trillion crypto industry, but faced growing opposition from Democrats over President Donald Trump's investments in the sector.The failure effectively ends market structure legislative work in the Senate for 2026 and is a major blow to the crypto industry, which has invested years and hundreds of millions of dollars into supporting its interests.
In the immediate aftermath, the price of bitcoin fell around 3%, while Coinbase and Circle shares slid 8% and 10% respectively.
Despite the Clarity Act setback, attention has quickly shifted to two other proposals moving through Congress today.
The first is a Crypto Tax Bill. The House Ways and Means Committee released the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act ahead of a Wednesday markup, with the bill proposing a $10 de minimis exception for qualifying crypto transactions and network fees.Under current rules, people transacting with digital assets must report the capital gain or loss on those transactions, even for small-dollar amounts.The carve-out is aimed at gas fees, the small on-chain payments users make to have transactions processed on networks such as Ethereum, and similar validation costs that today force taxpayers to track paper-only tax lots on every routine action.The House Ways and Means markup, scheduled for 10:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, September 16, could mark the first significant movement for crypto tax legislation in Congress, though the bill is unlikely to become law this year.
The second bill is the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill, which would lock up the $25 billion in $BTC the United States government currently holds for a period of 20 years, formalising the country's position as a long-term holder of the asset.
Together, the two bills signal that while the Clarity Act may be dead for now, crypto remains firmly on the congressional agenda heading into the final stretch of 2026.
Sources:Clarity Act Stalls in Senate as Crypto Bill Fails to Clear Key Vote, DecryptU.S. House Panel Shares Crypto Tax Bill Ahead of Hearing, CoinDeskSenate Cloture Vote on Clarity Act Fails, CNBC
