CLARITY Act post-mortem blames process, politics and Trump ties

The CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill that would have created a federal framework for digital assets, failed to advance in the Senate, falling short of the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle (49-50). A CoinDesk post-mortem, based on interviews with more than a dozen industry participants and legislative aides, blames a confluence of failures: the Senate ignored the House's own version of the bill, drafted text piecemeal, White House involvement complicated negotiations, industry lobbying was scattershot, and Democrats rejected the ethics deal as insufficient.

Key figures are now assigning blame and charting what's next. Sen. Cynthia Lummis said politics ultimately sank the bill — "Democrats hate President Trump more than they like good policy" — while Taylor Lindman of the SEC's Crypto Task Force said much of the agency's crypto agenda falls within its existing authority: CLARITY would have accelerated the work, but the SEC doesn't need it to move forward. That echoes SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael Selig, who have both said their agencies will act with or without legislation. Republicans rejected a last-minute Democratic counterproposal; XRP sank 10% and bitcoin slid toward $76,000 in the immediate market reaction, and the White House says the bill is unlikely to pass in the lame-duck session.