SEC, CFTC to Push Crypto Rules After Senate Blocks Clarity Act 49-50

• The Senate rejected cloture on the Clarity Act 49-50 on Sept. 15, 11 votes short of the 60 needed to begin debate.
• SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency will act “with or without legislation” using existing statutory authority.
• CFTC Chair Mike Selig said the commission is “locked in and ready to ship” crypto market rules.
• JPMorgan called the remaining legislative window “extremely narrow” and said agency rules are less durable than statute.
• The House Ways and Means Committee advanced a separate crypto tax bill 38-5 the next day.

U.S. crypto market-structure legislation stalled in the Senate on Tuesday, and federal regulators said Wednesday they will write rules anyway. The Senate rejected cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, by a 49-50 vote, 11 short of the 60 votes required to open floor debate.

The Senate Daily Press recorded the result at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sept. 15. Sen. Chris Coons did not vote. Four Republicans — Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Jerry Moran and Thom Tillis — voted no. Tillis voted no to preserve a motion to reconsider, which he entered a minute later. No Democrat voted to advance the bill.

A day later, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins wrote on X that “with or without legislation, we will act decisively within the SEC’s statutory authority to deliver certainty for American investors and for the entrepreneurs shaping our technological future.” In the same post, Atkins added, “Stay tuned.”

CFTC Chairman Mike Selig struck a similar note, calling Tuesday’s outcome “unfortunate” and saying the commission is “locked in and ready to ship its rules for the new frontier of finance,” according to Decrypt. Selig said the agency would use existing statutory authorities to help deliver a crypto market structure.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the vote was a disappointment but that “we can’t wait on Congress anymore.” In an X post, he said the SEC and CFTC already have the tools to create clear rules and that “clarity is coming to crypto regardless.”

JPMorgan analysts told The Block the bill is “not fully dead” because it remains on the Senate calendar, but the passage window is now “extremely narrow and only getting narrower.” They warned agency rules can be reversed by a future administration or challenged in court. Bernstein, in a note reported by Cointelegraph, expects “aggressive and swift” rulemaking, including token taxonomy and DeFi developer protections.

Separately, the House Ways and Means Committee advanced the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act 38-5 on Wednesday. That bill would set rules for stablecoins, staking, lending and a de minimis exemption for network fees of $10 or less. It now heads to the full House.

Ethics provisions tied to officials’ digital-asset holdings were the main fracture line before the vote. Supporters still have a procedural path via reconsideration or a lame-duck session, but midterm timing leaves little floor time. For traders, the near-term signal is agency rulemaking rather than a statute that would be harder to unwind.