The Senate failed on September 15 to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, commonly called the CLARITY Act, with a 49-50 vote falling short of the 60 votes required to begin debate. The bill would define the respective oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, distinguish digital commodities from securities, expand CFTC authority over crypto derivatives and spot trading, and establish rules for exchanges, brokers, software developers, consumers and crypto bankruptcies. Democrats cited unresolved ethics concerns involving President Donald Trump’s family crypto ventures, while Republicans said the text included more than 120 Democratic-requested changes. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, an OKX board member and co-chair of its joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange, said durable rules must come from Congress because agency measures can be challenged or reversed by a new Congress. HashKey senior researcher Tim Sun said a second Federal Reserve rate increase at the October meeting could pose a greater near-term risk to Bitcoin than the legislative setback by lifting long-term Treasury yields, tightening dollar liquidity and affecting spot Bitcoin ETF flows and derivatives leverage. Regulators nonetheless continued acting under existing authority, including the SEC’s five-year exemption on September 17 for blockchain versions of listed shares.