Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo said the U.S. Senate’s failure to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) will not stop the march of innovation in the country, telling journalist Eleanor Terrett that federal financial regulators are still positioned to write the frameworks the bill would have codified.
Giancarlo, who led the CFTC from 2017 to 2019 and is widely known in the industry as “CryptoDad,” spoke with Terrett, co-founder and co-host of the Crypto in America podcast, in an interview posted on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, hours after the Senate cloture vote on H.R. 3633.
“@SECPaulSAtkins and @ChairmanSelig are determined to do what their jobs require them to do and put in place sound regulatory frameworks that ensure that financial innovation, market modernization and economic growth take place under U.S. law and not outside it,” Giancarlo told Terrett, referring to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Michael Selig.
Terrett said she will host a panel featuring Giancarlo, former CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad and former SEC Commissioners Troy Paredes and Caroline Crenshaw at the Avalanche Summit in New York later on Wednesday.
Senate Blocks CLARITY Act in 49-50 Cloture Vote
The U.S. Senate voted 49-50 on Tuesday afternoon against invoking cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, the House-passed CLARITY Act, falling 11 votes short of the 60 required under Senate Rule XXII. All Democrats present voted against the motion. Four Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, joined the opposition, although Tillis voted no as a procedural step to preserve a motion to reconsider.
Senator Chris Coons of Delaware did not vote. Terrett reported that Democratic negotiators, including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Warner, Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock, Ruben Gallego, Angela Alsobrooks and Catherine Cortez Masto voted no.
The bill would have divided federal oversight of digital assets between the SEC, the federal securities regulator, and the CFTC, the federal derivatives regulator. It would have set registration paths for exchanges, brokers and dealers, established ethics limits on senior officials issuing digital assets while in office, and provided Treasury authority to intervene if payment stablecoins drained deposits from community banks.
Senate Republicans had released a revised text of the bill on September 14, incorporating 126 substantive changes requested by Democratic negotiators over more than a year of talks.
Democrats who opposed the motion said the ethics title still did not go far enough to restrict public officials’ crypto dealings, including those tied to President Donald Trump’s reported family crypto income. Attribute that dispute. Do not leave only the Republican account of the 126 changes.
Industry Points to the Agencies After Senate Setback
Coinbase Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brian Armstrong wrote after the vote that the crypto industry “can’t wait on Congress anymore,” arguing that the SEC and the CFTC already have the authority to write digital-asset rules and that “clarity is coming to crypto regardless.”
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said “this one stings” in a post shortly after the tally was announced, and pointed to Atkins and Selig to “fill the legislative gap” that the failed vote created.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, one of the bill’s chief architects, said the SEC and the CFTC should “set clear rules of the road for digital assets until Congress legislates” in a post made after midnight on Wednesday.
Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, another lead sponsor of the CLARITY Act, said in a written statement that Senate Democrats “were never truly serious” about passing a market-structure bill and had voted against limits on politicians’ crypto investments.
Giancarlo Has Made the Case Before
Giancarlo has said publicly for months that federal agencies can carry U.S. crypto policy forward if Congress does not pass the CLARITY Act. He retired from law practice at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in April 2026 to work full-time on digital assets, artificial intelligence, and public policy, and now advises companies across the sector.
Both the SEC and the CFTC have taken independent steps on digital-asset regulation in 2026. In August, the SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, a tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. On September 14, Chairman Atkins said that work continues “with or without” market-structure legislation.
CFTC Chairman Selig has separately directed staff to explore crypto market-structure rules under existing authority if Congress does not pass the CLARITY Act, and told Fox Business that without a statute, regulators would end up “writing all the rules.”
What Happens Next
Whether the CLARITY Act returns before Congress leaves for its pre-election recess or in a lame-duck session after the November elections is not yet public. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana told Terrett after the vote that he “wasn’t surprised” by the outcome and thought the bill could still be revived in a lame-duck session. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas described the bill as “mostly dead.”
Tillis’s procedural no vote preserves the option to bring a motion to reconsider on the Senate floor. The House-passed version of H.R. 3633 remains on the Senate calendar.
Also Read: Warren Calls for Senate No Vote on CLARITY Act Over Trump Ethics
