What a 2026 crypto procedural vote signals for Clarity Act cloture

Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, on August 8. The procedural vote requiring 60 senators to advance the bill is set for September 15, and the parallels to a chaotic 2021 crypto amendment fight are hard to ignore. Five years ago, a last-minute crypto tax provision buried in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act became the industry’s first real taste of procedural warfare on Capitol Hill. That episode, where a bipartisan amendment to narrow the definition of “broker” failed on a procedural objection despite broad support, taught crypto lobbyists a painful lesson: having the votes on substance means nothing if you can’t clear the procedural hurdles. The bill and its path so far The CLARITY Act, formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, attempts something Congress has debated for years without resolving. It draws a line between digital assets that qualify as commodities, regulated by the CFTC, and those that qualify as securities, overseen by the SEC. The House passed the legislation with bipartisan support during the 119th Congress. The Senate Banking Committee then cleared it in May 2026 with a 15-9 v...