Morning Minute: Clarity Act Vote Falls Short as Democrats All Vote ‘No’

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our daily news show ‘FOMO HOUR’ covering all of the top stories and market action.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors fall as Clarity Act vote fails; BTC at $76.1k
• Clarity Act falls 11 votes short in cloture vote as Dems all vote No
• Kraken parent Payward to bring Hyperliquid perps to the US
• Circle launched its Arc mainnet with 100 protocols already live
• X introduced its Cashtag partner program allowing tickers to be tradeable via CEX

🏛️ The Clarity Act Falls 11 Votes Short

The Senate rejected cloture on the Clarity Act on Tuesday, 49 to 50 against a 60-vote threshold. Cynthia Lummis, the bill’s chief author, had already called it earlier in the day: “It’s over.”

In the aftermath, Bitcoin fell to $75,960, down 4% and its lowest since August 21. Ethereum lost 5.4% to $2,401, Solana 5.1% to $98.15, and XRP lost 9.4%.

Negotiations collapsed in the final hour. Staff for Tim Scott ended a last discussion on ethics provisions in Thom Tillis’s office, and the vote proceeded with nothing resolved. Republicans had conceded real ground in Sunday’s draft, adding state attorney general enforcement and divestment requirements that Trump signed off on. Democrats said it still wouldn’t reach the first family. Warner circulated a counterproposal hours before the vote. Susan Collins voted no from the Republican side.

Now, this was a procedural vote on whether to take up the bill at all, not final passage. It is still potentially possible to pass the bill this year, but time is now running out. The Senate breaks in early October for the midterms, and a Democratic takeover of either chamber in November makes 2027 harder than this week was. Odds of the bill passing in 2026 are now just 5% on Polymarket.

There was an immediate reaction from the crypto lobbyists in the aftermath. Stand With Crypto said it will score senators’ Clarity Act votes into its public lawmaker ratings ahead of November, with executive director Mason Lynaugh calling the failure a failure of leadership and promising crypto voters turn out at the ballot box.

Those same Crypto lobbyists spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars arguing it couldn’t function without statutory clarity. It lost that vote, and yet, almost nothing changes operationally. Selig has already directed CFTC staff to write rules under existing authority. The SEC proposed letting blockchains serve as official stock ownership records and holds its 24-hour trading roundtable Thursday. The CFTC moved to dismiss CME’s suit over perps. Coinbase filed to bring single-stock perps onshore. All of that happened in three weeks without a statute.

So where does this leave us? Well, effectively in the same place we were in. Rule changes are coming via CFTC and SEC guidance—they just won’t be permanent law. Law would’ve been better, but we will at least have 2 years of runway with the crypto-friendly CFTC and SEC ahead. Any market selloff based on this result is likely ill-advised. But of course, today has the FOMC meeting looming and a potential rate hike. A decision that could very well rattle markets…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are red after the Clarity Act vote didn’t pass; BTC -1% at $76.1k; ETH -3% at $2,410; SOL -3% at $98; HYPE even at $78.6; ZEC +7% at $1,225
• Top alt movers include ARB (+22%), ZEC (+7%) and VVV (+5%)
• Oil even at $103; Gold +1.4% at $4,390
• Stock futures are green ahead of today’s FOMC; DOW +0.2%, Nasdaq +0.5%
• Coinbase fell nearly 9% and Circle 9.4% as crypto equities sold off on the Clarity Act failure, with Galaxy down 8%, Gemini 7%, and miners off 3% to 5%
• Deutsche Bank plans to launch institutional crypto custody later this year pending approvals, letting corporate clients hold and transfer Bitcoin, Ethereum, and select stablecoins, with tokenized instruments on the roadmap
• X launched its Cashtag Partner Program in the US, adding a Trade button to ticker pages that routes users to Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Interactive Brokers, or Moomoo, with execution happening on the partner platform rather than on X
• The DOJ is seeking forfeiture of $61.2 million in USDT it says traces to black-market Iranian oil sales, filed September 14 in the Southern District of New York across 10 TRON addresses
• The ECB asked merchants to join its digital euro pilot, opening participation ahead of a planned rollout
• Kamino named Yieldstreet co-founder Michael Weisz CEO to lead a US expansion, putting a Wall Street operator atop Solana’s largest lending protocol
• House Ways and Means marks up a 114-page crypto tax bill Wednesday creating a $10 de minimis exemption for network fees, extending wash-sale rules to digital assets and taxing mining and staking rewards as ordinary income on receipt

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $450M in net outflows on Tuesday; the ETH ETFs saw $142M in outflows
• DeFi Development Corp set up a $300 million ATM for CHAD, its 13% SOL-backed preferred, as holdings grew 55,491 SOL to about 2.39 million, with shares issued at or above the $10 stated amount

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were red; DOGE -3%, SHIB -6%, PEPE -3%, PENGU -3%, TRUMP -5%, SPX -3%
• Robinhood chain leaders were mostly red; Pons -7% to $400M; AI -10% at $270M; Cashcat +1% at $157M; Orbio +170% and Delta +30% led top movers
• Solana top movers were led by Paid +200x, Eloncoin (+15x) and Allinu (+700%)

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly flat; Punks even at 29.3 ETH, BAYC -1% at 6.75 ETH, Pudgy even at 3.36 ETH
• Rare Friends Genesis (+140%) and Hashcats (+22%) led top movers