The Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act in a 49-50 procedural vote, falling short of the 60 votes required after more than a year of bipartisan negotiations. Democrats voted as a bloc against the bill, joined by Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Josh Hawley and Jerry Moran; Sen. Thom Tillis initially voted yes before switching to no, preserving a procedural option to revisit the legislation. The breakdown triggered partisan blame, although seven negotiating Democrats called the result "a setback, but not the end" and said they remained committed to bipartisan action. As industry frustration grows, attention is shifting toward regulators. SEC Chair Paul Atkins linked the Senate setback to a new innovation exemption allowing tokenized U.S. stocks to trade onchain, while the CFTC issued no-action relief for passive software providers and sent a broader crypto-markets rulemaking proposal to the White House for review. Kristin Smith of the Solana Policy Institute said regulatory guidance is currently the more viable path forward.