US Senate set to decide whether or not to advance landmark crypto bill

The U.S. Senate is set to vote on Tuesday on whether to advance once-in-a-generation cryptocurrency legislation, potentially determining the fate of the bill as Republican Senate leaders grapple with a limited calendar in a busy election year.

The bill, dubbed the Clarity Act, would create a regulatory framework for digital ‌assets, which crypto companies say would put them on more solid legal footing.

The deep-pocketed industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning to advance the bill.

But it remained unclear if the legislation could garner the 60 votes it needs to advance, even after Senate Republicans on Sunday released a new text in an effort to address concerns from the banking industry and some Democrats.

The Senate is set to hold its vote shortly after 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT).

Although passage of the Clarity Act would be positive for the crypto ecosystem — and has been broadly supported by the crypto industry — investors and analysts have said that the crypto market had mostly priced in that the bill would not be passed into law in the foreseeable future, Reuters reported on Monday.

“Another delay would be negative but probably not a new regime shock, whereas passage would reduce legal uncertainty and could unlock additional institutional activity,” said Can-Luca Köymen, investment strategist at digital asset bank Sygnum.