The CLARITY setback is not fatal for crypto, but institutional participation could remain on the sidelines longer than expected, according to Trace Finance co-founder Bernardo Brites.
The US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on Tuesday after a procedural vote fell short, 49-50. The vote required 60 of 100 senators to pass the bill and allow it to move forward.
While the outcome was widely considered a major setback for the industry, seven Democratic senators said that it is “not the end.”
Crypto’s Post-CLARITY Reckoning
In an official statement, US Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said that Democrats have spent the last two years working to pass crypto legislation that would expand opportunity, protect consumers, punish bad actors, create regulatory certainty, and include strong, commonsense ethics provisions for elected officials. They added,
“This week was a setback, but not the end of that important work. We remain committed to working in a bipartisan fashion to get this legislation passed.”
The comment came just a day after Senator Cynthia Lummis lashed out at Democrats and said that they were never truly serious about protecting consumers and preserving American leadership. She called the party “anti-consumer and pro-illicit finance, anti-ethics, anti-free enterprise, anti-worker, anti-livable-wage jobs, pro-socialism, and anti-American.”
Meanwhile, Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse called for a post-mortem of the legislative defeat. Not all reactions to the Senate setback have been strongly negative. Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong said bipartisan discussions could continue, and the CLARITY Act may get another chance. However, he also added that the industry “cannot wait” for Congress anymore.
In a separate statement to CryptoPotato, John O’Loghlen, Managing Director, APAC, Coinbase said,
“We are encouraged by the broad, bipartisan support for a bill endorsed by law enforcement, and we believe that coalition will continue to play an important role in advancing clear and consistent rules for the industry. We also expect the SEC and CFTC to advance regulatory clarity through their respective rulemaking authorities, alongside ongoing engagement with policymakers and regulators.”
Institutions May Wait Longer
Trace Finance co-founder Bernardo Brites said that failure of the CLARITY Act is “not a fatal one” for the industry. Brites, however, argued that institutional volumes will continue to remain on the sidelines longer than they need to, and the bigger wave of incumbent participation the market is waiting for gets pushed further out. But he added that “none of this changes where digital assets are headed.”
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“Banks will still move to adopt stablecoins, and blockchain rails will still become the foundation of modern finance, clarity or no clarity. But every delay like this one is a missed chance for the US to cement its role as a leader in innovative financial technology.”
