Republican senators said the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is likely to fail when the Senate returns next week, days before a procedural vote that will determine whether the crypto market structure bill gets any floor time this year. Semafor reported Tuesday that Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said the bill “does not look good right now,” and quoted Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., saying that “if there’s no interest in the White House in trying to bridge the gap on the ethics language, it is going to fail.”

What Democrats want is a conflict-of-interest provision covering Trump and his family, and two Democratic aides told Semafor the talks have barely moved. Democrats have held that line. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in the spring said there would be no votes without an ethics provision covering senior officials. A White House spokesperson was quoted as saying in the Semafor report that President Donald Trump is “unequivocal” that Congress must pass the bill, and that the administration “has already agreed to the most comprehensive and wide-ranging ethics provision in history.”

The Vote Does Not Pass the Bill

Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., filed cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633 on Aug. 8, before the chamber left for recess. Under a unanimous consent order entered before the recess, the cloture motion ripens at 2:15 p.m. ET on Sept. 15. Invoking cloture takes 60 votes and only opens debate. Republicans cannot reach that number without Democratic support. A defeat would not formally kill the bill, but the chamber’s own 2026 calendar leaves it barely any session days between next week and the Nov. 3 midterms.

Lummis Assigns Blame Early

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., wrote on X on Tuesday that “if this bill fails it won’t be because of ethics, it will be because Democrats didn’t join Republicans in embracing a bipartisan bill that protected consumers, cements America’s leadership in digital assets, and empowered law enforcement to clamp down on illicit finance.” She added that “if we can bridge those gaps I’m confident we can pass Clarity, but they require further compromise from Democrats, not the White House.”

The House passed the bill 294-134 in July 2025, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced it 15-9 in May. It stalled through the summer as the banking lobby and crypto companies fought over stablecoin yield, and in July Lummis released updated text carrying an ethics section that would bar public officials and their spouses, the president included, from issuing or sponsoring digital assets for payment. That ban would sunset in January 2029 and be enforced by the attorney general.

Related Listen: The Chopping Block: Crypto Clarity Act Drama + Stablecoin Yield Wars + Developer Liability Fights