Galaxy Says Crypto Can Move On as CLARITY Act Stalls in Senate

Galaxy Research said the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act is effectively finished for the current period, while assessing that the cryptocurrency sector will continue to operate without it after the U.S. Senate failed to advance the bill on Tuesday in a 49-50 vote. 

According to a Galaxy Research analysis by researcher Alex Thorn published after the vote, the research firm described the outcome as disappointing but not unexpected. 

The Clarity Act collapses in the Senate 49-50, the SEC unveils a 5-year tokenized stocks exemption, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei sparks an AI industry fight over slowing down frontier development.

Full breakdown below. https://t.co/44ag8uQK3L

— Galaxy Research (@glxyresearch) September 18, 2026

What Galaxy Research’s assessment says

Galaxy Research said it had tracked the bill’s prospects over several months. The firm reduced its estimated odds of passage to as low as 10% after the Senate left for August recess without a vote. 

On the Monday before Tuesday’s vote, after Republicans released a revised draft containing additional concessions, Galaxy raised the odds to 25% while still describing the chances as low. The firm noted that extensive negotiations involving dozens of staffers, industry advocates, and administration officials had taken place over two years. 

Galaxy specifically acknowledged the work of senators and staff from the offices of Lummis, Tillis, Gillibrand, Hagerty, Moreno, Scott, Thune, Boozman, Gallego, Alsobrooks, Booker, Warner, and Cortez Masto, as well as officials at the White House and the U.S. Treasury Department connected to the Presidential Working Group on Digital Assets and its July 2025 report.

Galaxy said last-minute negotiations had appeared to be progressing but were ultimately cut short, resulting in unified Democratic opposition even from longtime advocates of the legislation. 

The firm stated that efforts to revive the bill for another vote before the October recess exist but assessed the odds of success as very low.

Why the CLARITY Act stalled

The Senate did not invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the legislation. The vote fell short of the 60 votes required to end debate and move the bill to full floor consideration. 

All Democratic senators present voted against the measure, including previously supportive members Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland. Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Jerry Moran of Kansas also voted no, citing concerns over the stablecoin yield provision. 

Senator Chris Coons of Delaware was absent. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina switched his vote to no at the last moment to preserve the ability to reintroduce the cloture motion later in the Congress.

Reactions from key senators

Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, a longtime supporter and sponsor of the bill, attributed the outcome to Democratic opposition. She stated that Democrats “were never truly serious about protecting consumers and preserving American leadership.”

This afternoon, Senate Democrats proved they were never truly serious about protecting consumers and preserving American leadership. I sat at the table with Senate Democrats working in good faith to get this done while they played games.

For over a year, they presented demands…

— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) September 15, 2026

Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, who had worked with Tillis on a compromise regarding stablecoin rewards, pointed to unresolved ethics provisions. She said Democrats required “very clear ethics in place to prevent the grift and the corruption that we have seen from this administration.”

In a subsequent post on X, Lummis criticized Alsobrooks’ vote, noting that Republicans had accepted ethics restrictions related to crypto investments and activities by elected officials, including President Donald Trump.

Regulatory activity continues

Galaxy Research said the cryptocurrency sector will be fine without the CLARITY Act for the remainder of the current administration. The firm pointed to ongoing actions by market and banking regulators. 

In the same week as the Senate vote, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued no-action relief exempting front-end DeFi developers from certain registration requirements. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also released an “innovation exemption” covering tokenized stocks.

Galaxy noted that certain measures can only be accomplished by Congress. It assessed that the likelihood of the CLARITY Act advancing in the next Congress would be relatively low if Democrats control either or both chambers. 

The firm said the primary focus now shifts to continued work by regulatory agencies.

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