The U.S. Senate will take its first floor vote on crypto market structure legislation on Sept. 15, with senators set to vote on a procedural motion tied to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill at 4:52 a.m. ET on Saturday. The filing came in the closing minutes of an overnight session that ran past the chamber’s planned Friday departure for the August recess.
According to the Senate Press Gallery’s floor log, Thune filed the motion on H.R. 3633, calendar number 423, immediately after filing cloture on a judicial nomination.
Eleanor Terrett, host of Crypto In America, said the Senate will reconvene on Sept. 14 and vote on the motion at 2:15 p.m. ET on Sept. 15.
What the vote would actually do
The Sept. 15 vote would not pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, nor would it automatically open debate on the bill itself. It would only decide whether debate on the motion to proceed can be cut off.
That is a meaningful procedural step, but it falls short of final passage. Cloture requires 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans hold 53 seats, so the motion would need support from at least seven Democrats or independents even if every Republican votes in favor. That last condition is not certain.
Unresolved obstacles remain
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has said he will withhold support unless the bill addresses the risk of deposits draining from community banks.
Other issues that kept the measure from reaching the floor have not been settled either. Those include the government-ethics provision, language related to illicit finance and the question of how text from the Senate Agriculture Committee would be merged into the legislation.
Last month, Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Thom Tillis of North Carolina sent the White House an ethics compromise that would require President Donald Trump to divest from crypto businesses. Trump has not signed off on it, according to the report.
Industry reaction and passage odds
Ji Hun Kim, chief executive officer of the Crypto Council for Innovation, described the filing as a critical step forward. At the same time, he said his group had wanted full Senate consideration before the August break and would spend the recess working to win support from both parties.
Galaxy Research lowered its estimate of the bill’s chances of passing this year to 30% from 50%. Polymarket most recently put the odds at 21%.
Where the bill stood before the recess
The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May by a 15-9 vote, with two Democrats joining in support. The House passed its own version in July 2025.