According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Senate failed to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act after the proposal won only 49 votes, far below the 60-vote threshold needed to advance legislation in the chamber. The result marked a setback for a years-long effort led by senior senators.
The vote fell short of the Senate threshold
The bill did not clear the procedural bar required to move ahead. CoinDesk said support stopped at 49 votes, leaving the measure well short of the number needed for further action.
Trump crypto holdings became the central point of conflict
The main reason the negotiations collapsed was a sharp bipartisan dispute over ethics restrictions tied to President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency holdings.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner and others said the bill failed to effectively prevent senior government officials from using their positions to profit from their own crypto assets.
Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said she had already offered Democrats the maximum concessions possible. She added that the bill even included what she described as an unprecedented ethics agreement aimed at Trump, yet Democrats still would not cooperate and tried to add more demands.
Support shifted after Republican leaders ended negotiations
After Republican leadership ended negotiations and pushed the vote forward, several Democratic senators who had previously backed the bill switched to opposing it, and the measure failed.
The bill had also faced pressure from the industry
Beyond the political fight in Congress, the proposal had already run into industry resistance. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had opposed the bill over how it treated stablecoin rewards programs, a dispute that had earlier slowed its progress.
It may return in a lame-duck session
Despite the failed effort, Republican Senator John Kennedy told the media that the legislation could still be discussed again during a future lame-duck session of Congress.