US Senate rejects Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in 50-49 vote

September 16, 2026 at 02:31 AM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

The US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on Tuesday, falling short of the 60 votes needed to open debate. Four Republican senators joined all Democrats in opposing the bill, which had been championed by President Donald Trump and the crypto industry. The defeat stalls efforts to create the first comprehensive federal framework for digital-asset markets.

Key Facts

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act failed to secure the 60 votes required to advance to debate in the Senate.
The final vote was 50 in favor and 49 against, with four Republican senators—Jerry Moran, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Thom Tillis—joining all Democrats in opposition.
Senator Elizabeth Warren said the bill posed “massive risks to families, our national security, and our economy.”
President Donald Trump has earned more than $1.4 billion from his family’s crypto ventures.
Community banks opposed provisions allowing rewards on stablecoin holdings, arguing they could pull deposits from traditional lenders.

The Failed Vote

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act failed on Tuesday to secure the 60 votes needed to advance to a debate in the Senate. Four Republican senators – Jerry Moran, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley and Thom Tillis – joined all the Democrats in voting against it. The vote was 50-49 in favour. Tillis switched his vote from yes to no in a procedural move that preserves his ability to bring the measure back up for reconsideration later. The vote effectively put the bill on ice, as Congress is set to depart Washington this month ahead of the November midterm elections.

Opposition and Industry Spending

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said the bill posed “massive risks to families, our national security, and our economy”. She added that “while Americans across the country suffer from an affordability crisis, this bill will turbocharge President Donald Trump’s ability to rake in billions and billions of dollars from crypto.” Community banks fiercely opposed provisions allowing rewards on stablecoin holdings, arguing they could pull deposits out of traditional lenders and reduce funding available for farmers and small businesses. Several Republican senators also expressed concerns about those provisions, complicating party leaders’ efforts to muster support for the bill. The deep-pocketed crypto industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning to advance the bill.

Trump’s Crypto Interests

Trump, who has earned more than $1.4bn from his family’s crypto ventures, had urged Congress to pass it. Trump courted cash from the crypto industry on the 2024 campaign trail, calling himself a “crypto president”. The defeat dealt a major blow to efforts to establish the first comprehensive federal framework for digital-asset markets. It offered another illustration of Congress’s struggle to keep pace with disruptive new technologies as lawmakers wrestle with a similarly fraught debate over artificial intelligence.