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Senate Cloture Vote on CLARITY Act Tests Crypto's 60-Vote Math
Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed for cloture on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. A 60-vote threshold means he needs Democratic support — and an ethics addendum targeting Trump's crypto ties remains unresolved.
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The U.S. Senate is moving on crypto. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed for cloture on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a procedural step that sets up a floor vote after senators return from recess on September 15.
Cloture cuts off debate. It is not a vote on the bill itself. To get there, Thune needs 60 votes – a number that requires Democrats to cross the aisle in meaningful numbers. Lawmakers could not get that done before the August recess. The same fights that stalled the bill then – ethics provisions and stablecoin regulations – are still alive.
The CLARITY Act's core job is jurisdictional. Right now, crypto operates under both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, with each agency claiming authority over overlapping pieces of the market. The bill would set a federal test for when a digital asset counts as a security versus a commodity, and assign oversight accordingly.
That matters for exchanges, token issuers, and any U.S.-based crypto business. The lack of a clear framework has pushed some projects offshore and left domestic operators guessing about compliance. The bill, if it passes, would end that ambiguity.