CLARITY Act: The 15 September Senate Vote and What It Means for Exchanges
On 15 September the US Senate holds a procedural vote on H.R. 3633, the bill dividing authority between the SEC and the CFTC. For crypto exchanges, it decides which rules they register under in the US — and whether there will be any decision at all in 2026.
In brief: on 15 September 2026 at 14:15 ET, the US Senate holds a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Sixty votes are needed; Republicans hold 53 seats, so at least seven Democrats or independents must join. The vote itself passes nothing: it only opens the way to debate, amendments and a final vote. But if the 60 votes are not there, the chances of getting the law through before the November midterm elections all but vanish.
What the CLARITY Act is and why exchanges need it
The main problem of the US crypto market in recent years has not been bans but uncertainty: the SEC may treat the same token as a security while the CFTC treats it as a commodity. The answer determines which license a platform operates under, what disclosures it makes, who supervises it and whether it can list the asset for US clients at all.
The CLARITY Act allocates these powers and sets rules for the infrastructure. According to the bill's description, it:
- introduces standards for classifying digital assets and the criteria by which an asset falls within the SEC's or the CFTC's perimeter;
- defines registration and compliance requirements for platforms serving US customers;
- restricts certain reward mechanics on stablecoin balances;
- spells out the obligations of developers of decentralized protocols;
- adds measures against financial crime (an AML section).
For an exchange, this means predictability: a clear registration path instead of a "regulation by enforcement" regime, where practice is shaped through lawsuits.
How the bill reached this vote
| Date | Stage |
|---|---|
| 17 July 2025 | The House of Representatives passes the bill 294 to 134 |
| 14 May 2026 | The Senate Banking Committee backs the document 15 to 9 |
| 22 July 2026 | The consolidated Senate text is published |
| 15 September 2026 | Cloture vote, 14:15 ET |
| November 2026 | Midterm elections — after them the legislative window closes |
As CNBC noted in early September, the industry entered the fall with a policy gamble hanging by a thread: the Senate calendar is tight, and the number of working days before the elections comes to about twenty.
What the dispute is about
The disagreements are not about whether to regulate but about the details, each of which costs the market money:
- Stablecoin rewards. The most contentious point of the talks: traditional banks fear an outflow of customer money into yield-bearing stablecoin products, while the crypto market opposes strict restrictions.
- DeFi and developer liability. Where software ends and a financial intermediary begins.
- Ethics restrictions for officials. Requirements on crypto asset ownership by government employees have become a separate bargaining chip.
- Measures against illicit finance. Some senators insist on a stricter AML section.
Three scenarios after 15 September
- Cloture passes. The Senate moves on to debate and amendments. This is not yet a law: the final vote, followed by reconciliation with the House version, will take time that is almost nonexistent before the elections.
- Cloture fails, but talks continue. A second attempt with an amended text is possible — historically this happens, but each new run is politically more expensive.
- Cloture fails for good. The issue moves to the next Congress. For platforms, this means at least another year in the current regime, where the key questions are settled by regulators and courts.
What this means for Russian-speaking users
The US law has no direct effect on the availability of exchanges for users from Russia — it sets the rules for serving US customers. But there are two indirect effects.
First, large international platforms unify compliance: requirements that appear in the US usually spread to global listing, disclosure and AML procedures. Second, regulatory clarity in the largest jurisdiction affects the inflow of institutional capital and, with it, the liquidity of the instruments everyone trades.
The Russian regulatory framework is developing in parallel and by its own logic — with registers kept by the Bank of Russia (the central bank) and requirements for intermediaries. What has been in force since 1 September is covered in Crypto in Russia from 1 September: Bank of Russia registers, INN and rules for exchanges.
