SEC Cancels Crypto Rules Vote as Senate Recess Delays Digital Asset Market Clarity Act: who 13 outlets blamed

In Reuters coverage, the SEC cancellation was tied to the expectation that the agency would vote on exemptions that would allow crypto startups to raise capital without complying with traditional securities offering rules.

Reuters also said the delay came after the Senate left Washington for a five-week recess without voting on the Clarity Act, suggesting the bill's chances of passage have dimmed.

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The SEC chair Paul Atkins had previously signaled a regulatory shift, including a March suggestion that the SEC would propose "safe harbor" rules to make it easier for companies to sell tokens and raise money.

Reuters further described Atkins as considering a "fit-for-purpose startup exemption," which would allow crypto entrepreneurs to raise a certain amount of money or operate for a finite period while exempt from SEC rules.

CoinDesk framed the same SEC meeting cancellation as postponing the first major rulemaking effort in the digital assets sphere, with the agency moving the meeting to "a later date" while the industry waited for SEC or Congress to act first.

The Senate's procedural delay on the Clarity Act is now pushing the legislative test into September, with Reuters reporting that Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a cloture motion on 8 August setting up a 15 September vote.

FStech said the measure needs 60 votes to proceed, making the September vote a key test of its prospects, and it quoted Ian Katz saying, "the odds drop in September."

Criptoinforme reported that the procedural vote that could pave the way for the initiative to move forward in the upper chamber was delayed until September 15, and it said the Senate will return on September 14 and stay in session until October 2.

FStech also described the bill's ethics provision and stablecoin provisions as major obstacles, and it included Senator Cynthia Lummis writing, "Death by 1,000 cuts is just as fatal as a bullet."

Meanwhile, the SEC cancellation left market participants waiting for clarity on the regulatory treatment of crypto offerings, and finance.biggo said the next opportunity for consideration of the Clarity Act comes in September while SEC rulemaking remained a primary avenue for defining crypto offerings under federal securities law.