出典確認済みリサーチ: Coinbase / Kraken / Backpack

What happened in the Senate

CoinDesk reports that the bill failed a cloture vote on 15 September, drawing 49 votes in favor and 50 against. Negotiations had broken down over ethics restrictions on senior officials' crypto business interests, including President Donald Trump's, along with concerns about investor protection and illicit finance. Lev Breydo, an assistant professor of law at William & Mary, told CoinDesk the fight exposed divisions inside the industry itself, from the ethics provisions to the dispute with community banks over stablecoin yield. In his words, a coalition that looked unified "found out definitions create winners and losers".

CLARITY's central job was to draw a clear line between the SEC's and the CFTC's jurisdiction over digital assets and to put spot crypto markets under federal supervision. Without it, both agencies are working within powers Congress gave them years ago.

What regulators have done since

Three actions in three weeks show the direction.

The SEC's Innovation Exemption. According to the SEC's announcement, a venue may only list a token that gives holders the same rights as the underlying share. If a third party tokenized the stock, the issuing company must get written notice and a chance to object. Smart contracts must be public, auditable and deployed on a public permissionless ledger, and trading must halt whenever the underlying stock halts on its listing exchange. The number of symbols and the volume traded are capped. CoinDesk adds that trading is limited to identity-verified participants and margin is not allowed. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins called the exemption temporary, and it is: it lasts five years and the SEC can change its terms. Our earlier pieces cover the five-year conditions in detail.

The SEC custody proposal. The SEC said the proposal would give registered investment advisers and regulated funds a tailored framework for holding crypto, permit self-custody in some circumstances and allow state trust companies to act as custodians. For ordinary investors, this matters mainly through funds and advisers: it could widen the range of crypto strategies a regulated fund can offer. Our custody proposal risk map goes further.

The CFTC's two proposals. The CFTC says it intends a "comprehensive regulatory framework" for retail crypto transactions under section 2(c)(2)(D) of the Commodity Exchange Act, the provision covering leveraged or financed retail commodity deals. CoinDesk reports that such trading would have to go through futures commission merchants, bringing anti-money-laundering safeguards, and that crypto asset markets would face proof-of-reserves demands where customer assets sit in omnibus accounts. Chairman Michael Selig said the agency wants rules that prevent schemes "such as FTX" rather than only prosecuting them afterwards. This is an advance notice, the step before a formal proposal, so nothing changes for traders yet.

The gap that remains

CoinDesk's reporting is consistent on one point: plain spot trading, buying and selling the tokens themselves without leverage, still has no comprehensive federal supervisor. The CFTC can police fraud and manipulation in those markets but cannot write broader rules for them, and its new proposals cannot replace state money-transmission licensing, which still governs most US spot exchanges. Closing that gap was the core of CLARITY.

There is also a political fragility. CoinDesk notes the SEC currently has only two commissioners, Atkins and Mark Uyeda, and Selig has been the CFTC's sole commissioner for nearly a year. Rules issued by agencies can be revised by a future leadership; Kevin Kreuser, general counsel at D3, told CoinDesk that agency action "does not provide the same long-term certainty as legislation".

Winners, losers and what the industry expects

Executives quoted by CoinDesk see a faster path in some areas. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said the agency route is more favorable in the short term than a law that would have needed years of follow-up rulemaking, but he also argued that CLARITY's failure preserves a regulatory moat for incumbents such as Coinbase and Kraken, delaying competition that could lower costs. Jim Petrila of Dromos Labs called the signal "bullish" for DeFi. Investment bankers told CoinDesk that dealmaking continues: disclosed crypto deal value hit a record $9.7 billion in the first half of 2026, up 44% from a year earlier, even as the number of acquisitions fell 8% to 87.

What it means for you

• If you trade spot crypto on a US exchange: nothing changes this month. Your exchange stays under state licensing and existing federal anti-fraud rules.
• If you trade leveraged crypto from the US: the CFTC is designing the venue and intermediary rules. Watch the 60-day comment window; any final rule is months away.
• If you buy tokenized stocks: check what you own. The SEC's test requires the same rights as the share for TSV trading, but many products sold as tokenized stocks outside that framework give only price exposure. Our tokenized assets hub explains the differences.
• If you are outside the US: none of these rules applies to you directly, but they shape which products large exchanges launch globally.

How to act on this

If the SEC's exemption makes you curious about tokenized US stocks, start small and read the product terms first: who holds the underlying shares, whether you get dividends and votes, and what happens if the issuer fails. Backpack offers trading in tokenized US stocks around the clock on Solana; it has not been named by the SEC as an approved venue under the exemption, so treat it as an offshore product with its own terms. You can sign up with code luckybitcoin; see the Backpack profile. If you prefer a long-established exchange that Hougan names among the incumbents, Kraken accepts sign-ups with code 7f97gkqw; see the Kraken profile.

Quick answers

Did the CLARITY Act pass? No. It failed a procedural Senate vote 49–50 on 15 September 2026; 60 votes were needed.

Why did the CLARITY Act fail? According to CoinDesk, talks broke down over ethics limits on senior officials' crypto interests, including the President's, plus investor-protection and illicit-finance concerns.

Can the CLARITY Act come back? It would need new Senate action. With the midterms in November and little legislative time left, CoinDesk reports that chances of passage this year sharply fell.

What did the SEC do after CLARITY failed? It issued the five-year Innovation Exemption for tokenized stock trading on 17 September and proposed crypto custody rules for advisers and funds on 1 October.

Who regulates spot bitcoin trading in the US now? No single federal regulator. The CFTC can act against fraud and manipulation; exchanges are mainly licensed by states.

Limits of this article

The vote count, negotiation details and industry views come from CoinDesk's reporting; agency actions are taken from the SEC and CFTC announcements. Proposals and advance notices can change before any final rule, and comment deadlines depend on Federal Register publication dates we have not confirmed. This article explains regulation; it is not legal or investment advice. Partner links may earn NexuAlpha a commission paid by the exchange, at no extra cost to you.