US Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a cloture motion on August 8 to bring the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) to the Senate floor, scheduling a key procedural vote for after the chamber reconvenes on September 15. The filing was confirmed by the Senate Daily Press, as reported by Cointelegraph.
Cloture requires 60 votes to end debate and advance the bill. Republicans hold 53 of the 100 Senate seats, so at least seven Democratic votes will be needed to clear the procedural hurdle. Talks before the August recess failed to produce an agreement, and negotiations remain complicated by two sticking points: rules on stablecoin rewards and ethics provisions for government officials with ties to digital assets, according to Cointelegraph and CryptoBriefing.
On the ethics front, lawmakers have reportedly been working on a bipartisan addendum aimed at addressing Democratic concerns over President Donald Trump's crypto-related financial interests; as Bloomberg reported on Thursday, the proposal would require the president to divest from certain crypto-related businesses, Cointelegraph said.
The CLARITY Act — passed by the House with bipartisan support in July 2025 and cleared by the Senate Banking Committee by a 15-9 vote in May 2026 — would establish a federal market structure for digital assets, clarify when tokens qualify as securities or commodities and split oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). CryptoBriefing notes the bill also includes a DeFi safe harbor, allowing decentralized protocols to operate without immediately triggering the full weight of securities regulation.
The cloture vote concerns whether the Senate will take up the legislation, not final passage of the bill itself. Prediction markets reflect the uncertainty: after the recent delays, near-term odds for passage declined significantly, and according to prediction-market estimates the probability of approval within the year stands at around 17 percent. On August 8, Bitcoin traded near $65,000 and XRP near $1.04, according to Cointelegraph market data.
Sources
- Cointelegraph, "US Senate to vote on advancing CLARITY Act in September after Thune files cloture" — https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-senate-clarity-act-september-vote-thune-cloture (primary source)
- CryptoBriefing, "Senate Majority Leader Thune files cloture on Clarity Act, setting up September showdown" — https://cryptobriefing.com/thune-cloture-clarity-act-september-vote/ (secondary source)
