By Hannah Lang
Sept 15 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate is set to vote on Tuesday on whether to advance the first comprehensive cryptocurrency legislation, potentially determining the fate of the bill as Republican Senate leaders grapple with a limited calendar in a busy election year.
The bill, dubbed the Clarity Act, would create a regulatory framework for digital assets, which crypto companies say would put them on a more solid legal footing. The deep-pocketed industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning to advance the bill.
But it remained unclear if the legislation could garner the 60 votes it needs to advance, even after Senate Republicans on Sunday released a new text in an effort to address concerns from the banking industry and some Democrats. The Senate is set to hold its vote shortly after 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT).
Although passage of the Clarity Act would be positive for the crypto ecosystem — and has been broadly supported by the crypto industry — investors and analysts have said that the crypto market had mostly priced in that the bill would not be passed into law in the foreseeable future, Reuters reported on Monday.
“Another delay would be negative but probably not a new regime shock, whereas passage would reduce legal uncertainty and could unlock additional institutional activity,” said Can-Luca Köymen, investment strategist at digital asset bank Sygnum.
While the vote is procedural, it is seen as a key test, and little time on the calendar remains for Senate Republicans to try to revive the bill if the vote fails, according to analysts.
Three key crypto industry trade groups on Tuesday issued a joint statement urging lawmakers to advance the bill.
“A yes vote is critical and keeps the process moving,” the Blockchain Association, the Crypto Council for Innovation and the Digital Chamber said. “Doing so will ensure that Senators have opportunities to debate and move this much-needed legislation to the Senate floor.”
OFFICEHOLDER CONFLICTS IN FOCUS
Democrats have been pushing for the bill to include stricter limits on public officeholders profiting from their own crypto ventures, a push in part aimed at U.S. President Donald Trump’s meme coin and World Liberty Financial, a crypto company run by his sons. Trump in June disclosed that he had made $1.4 billion from his crypto ventures.
The new text of the bill gives state attorneys general more power to enforce the restrictions on public officeholders, and would require political officials to divest any existing significant financial interests in crypto-focused companies or place those assets in a blind trust.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said on Tuesday the new restrictions don’t go far enough. Some Democrats expressed concern that the new language would still allow the Justice Department to unilaterally shut down any lawsuits from state attorneys general.
“With this bill, Republicans are not only turning a blind eye to Trump’s corruption; they are turbocharging it,” Warren said to reporters.
The revised version of the bill also looks to address long-held concerns from the banking sector about a provision of the legislation that would allow certain crypto tokens known as stablecoins to compete with bank deposits, potentially harming lending.
Banking groups on Monday panned the new draft, saying that the new language did little to ease their fears that stablecoin rewards could eventually hinder the ability of banks to extend credit.
(Reporting by Hannah Lang in New York; Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Hugh Lawson)
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