As the U.S. Senate is about to hold a key procedural vote on the CLARITY bill, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly called on lawmakers to continue negotiations and push the bill to the next stage. The bill aims to establish a clearer regulatory framework for digital assets, but recently has faced greater resistance due to disagreements between the two parties.
A vote will be held on September 15th to decide whether it can proceed to deliberation.
Bessent stated that senators should continue to remain at the negotiating table after the end of the summer recess in order to reach an agreement on the bill. He mentioned that he had called on the Senate to advance this bill as early as July, arguing that it would not only provide clear rules for the digital asset industry but also give the government better tools to curb related abuses.
He also warned that if the bill cannot be advanced, it may send a negative signal to both U.S. allies and rivals, indicating that the United States is unwilling to maintain its dominant position in the field of digital assets.
The vote on September 15 does not mean that the bill is directly passed; rather, it determines whether the Senate will officially take up the bill. If the procedural vote is successful, further steps such as debate, amendment, and another vote will still be required.
Ethical considerations remain the main obstacle
At present, the biggest obstacle to the advancement of the bill still comes from ethical restrictions surrounding government officials' holding or access to digital assets. Democratic lawmakers have demanded that conflicts of interest constraints and financial disclosure requirements be strengthened before supporting the bill, which has clearly lowered external expectations for the bill to pass.
It is reported that Galaxy has lowered its estimate of the probability of this bill becoming law in 2026 from 75% earlier this year to 9%. This reflects a significant decline in market confidence that Congress will complete crypto legislation in the short term.
The industry still expects that the regulations will continue to be advanced.
Despite the weakening prospects for congressional legislation, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, still stated that clearer crypto regulatory rules will come "regardless of whether the Senate approves them or not."
In an interview with CNBC, he stated that Congress is very close to reaching a solution; even if legislation is hindered, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are prepared to advance their respective regulations. According to him, a clearer regulatory environment is expected to attract more institutional funds into the market.
Based on the current progress, the short-term focus of the CLARITY bill remains the outcome of the procedural vote on September 15th. This result will determine whether the bill can remain on the Senate's agenda and proceed to the next round of formal deliberation.
