Key Takeaways
- The SEC votes Aug. 14 on new crypto fundraising rules for startups and other issuers.
- The Senate’s Clarity Act faces a 60-vote cloture test on Sept. 15 after stalling in August.
- CFTC Chair Michael Selig says the agency will write crypto rules regardless of Congress.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the vote lands while a much bigger piece of crypto legislation remains jammed in the Senate. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which cleared the House last year with bipartisan support, has yet to reach a floor vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a procedural motion just before lawmakers bolted for the August recess, setting up a vote for Sept. 15.
That divide between regulators moving quickly and Congress grinding slowly has become the defining story of crypto policy in Washington this year.
SEC Moves on Its Own Authority
The SEC’s Aug. 14 meeting has one item on the agenda: whether to propose a new offering framework, often called Regulation Crypto, for investment contracts tied to digital assets. The rule would give startups a lighter route to raising capital, similar to exemptions already used by smaller businesses across other industries.
It would also create a pathway for tokens to graduate from securities status once their underlying network becomes decentralized enough that no single company or team remains in control. That has been one of crypto’s nastiest legal fault lines since the SEC began pursuing enforcement cases against token issuers years ago.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins has separately signaled the agency is close to unveiling an “innovation exemption” that could allow tokenized versions of stocks to trade around the clock on blockchain platforms. The scope and timing of that proposal remain under wraps.
Why the Clarity Act Is Stuck
Meanwhile, the legislation known as the CLARITY Act would reach much further than any single agency rule. It would divide oversight of crypto markets between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), treating most established tokens, including bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH), as commodities under CFTC authority while keeping securities law focused on fundraising and other activity regulated by the SEC.
Cloture, the procedural move Thune filed, requires 60 votes simply to end debate and advance toward a final vote. It does not pass the bill. According to reporting published by JD Supra, sticking points include ethics rules for public officials involved in crypto, protections for software developers, and banking industry fears that crypto rewards programs could siphon deposits from traditional banks.
The Senate returns Sept. 14, just one day before the scheduled cloture vote, but is set to disappear for most of October ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. That creates a brutally narrow window for the bill to move, even if it survives the initial procedural hurdle.
