The Clarity Act is heading toward a decisive Senate procedural vote on September 15, a cloture vote that requires 60 votes to move the bill from committee to full floor debate. The bill would split crypto oversight between the SEC and CFTC, set registration requirements, and strengthen AML rules.
It has already cleared major hurdles after being passed by the House in a 294–134 vote in July 2025. All 216 Republicans who voted supported the Bill, with 78 Democrats crossing the floor to vote in favor and 134 voting against. The Senate Banking Committee advanced it 15–9 in May 2026. But momentum has now stalled, with the Senate delaying a floor vote before the August recess amid partisan disagreement over ethics rules and banking sector opposition, and unresolved fights over government ethics provisions, illicit-finance rules, and how stablecoin yield and rewards should be treated.
Senators facing re-election in November are unlikely to cast controversial votes once midterm campaign season begins, giving the bill roughly a two-week window. If cloture fails, comprehensive crypto legislation is unlikely to resurface until 2029 at the earliest, according to some trackers, though others suggest a 2027 Congress could revive it. Industry sentiment has cooled considerably, with many now resigned that the bill is dead for 2026, a sharp reversal from the optimism that followed 2024’s record crypto political spending.
GENIUS Act misses deadline as issuers face compliance cliff
Regulators missed the July 18, 2026, statutory deadline to finalize implementing rules for the GENIUS Act, meaning the law’s effective date now reverts to 18 months after its July 2025 enactment. The result, lawyers say, is “the worst of both worlds,” a fixed compliance deadline paired with unfinished requirements, with every major implementing rule across the OCC, FDIC, Treasury, FinCEN, and OFAC still pending.
The uncertainty is hitting issuers unevenly. Circle’s USDC, backed by short Treasuries and cash and already the subject of an OCC trust-bank charter application, is seen as best-positioned, while Tether faces a harder path. Without a Treasury “reciprocity determination” for its home jurisdiction, USDT cannot legally be offered to US businesses once the Act takes effect. Tether’s response has been twofold , pursuing foreign-issuer registration while also launching USAT, a new US-focused stablecoin built for GENIUS compliance from the outset.
The OCC’s final rule is targeted for November 2026, with any slippage pushing the effective date into mid-2027. The harder enforcement deadline, barring US exchanges from offering non-compliant stablecoins, lands July 18, 2028.
FCA opens crypto authorization gateway
Following legislation in February 2026 that brought cryptoassets into the FCA’s regulatory remit, the UK moves into a new phase this month. Firms can apply for authorization between September 30, 2026, and February 28, 2027, ahead of the mandatory regime taking full effect on October 26, 2027.
Coverage is broad as trading platforms, intermediaries, custodians, stablecoin issuers, and firms arranging staking must all obtain FCA authorization to operate in the UK. Until the new rules take effect, FCA oversight stays limited to financial promotions and AML controls. There is no automatic conversion for firms currently registered only under AML rules and they must go through the new gateway from scratch, while those already authorized for other activities under FSMA must separately vary their permissions.
The regulator has been trying to speed things along. Approval times have reportedly been cut from 17 months to five, with acceptance rates rising from 15% to 45% following pre-application support meetings. Separately, the Bank of England is working on systemic stablecoin rules, expected by the end of 2026, including reported issuance and reserve-backing guardrails. Firms that miss the window risk being unable to serve UK customers once the full regime lands.