Galaxy Digital founder and CEO Mike Novogratz warned on September 15, 2026, that a Senate cloture vote on the CLARITY Act represents far more than a procedural test. If the legislation fails to advance, Novogratz said, the United States could go an extended period, or possibly never, without durable statutory crypto market-structure law.
Novogratz acknowledged that the SEC and CFTC could continue writing rules and allowing firms to operate under agency guidance over the next two years. However, he drew a distinction between agency rulemaking and long-term statutory certainty. A statute removes the political-reversal and offshore-relocation risks that agency rules alone cannot address, he argued.
The CLARITY Act cloture motion requires 60 votes to proceed. With Republicans holding 53 Senate seats, at least seven Democrats or independents must cross party lines for passage. Novogratz indicated that Republican holdouts could number at least four or more, tightening the arithmetic further.
Recent developments included a final text released by Senators Lummis, Boozman, and Scott on Sunday night, which incorporated tougher ethics provisions and was accepted by President Trump. The revised version included language modeled on the Tillis-Gallego framework and state attorney-general enforcement, along with more than 100 concessions on self-custody, best execution, and a retail investor advocate office.
Senate Democrats, however, remained unconvinced and planned to send a last-minute counterproposal, with key members including Warner and Gallego still questioning the adequacy of the ethics language.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reinforced the urgency from a national-security perspective, urging the Senate to pass CLARITY or risk forfeiting crypto security tools. Banking groups and New York state lawyers continued to oppose key provisions.
Other industry leaders offered differing perspectives on the path forward. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong argued that clarity would arrive regardless of the vote's outcome, while SEC Chair Atkins said crypto agency work would proceed even if CLARITY stalled. Grayscale similarly confirmed that crypto regulation would advance through separate stablecoin, tokenized-securities, and derivatives frameworks already in motion.
