- Ripple CLO Stuart Alderoty says a successful cloture vote for the CLARITY Act in mid-September will accelerate momentum for the bill before the midterm election break.
- Likewise, he is confident that the SEC and the CFTC will continue to advance their efforts to bring regulatory clarity for digital assets regardless of the crypto market structure bill’s fate in Congress.
The US Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act has been one disappointment after another since it reached the Senate following a 294-134 vote in the House of Representatives. Lawmakers in the upper chamber of Congress failed to push it to a vote before the legislature headed into the August recess.
Nonetheless, Senate Majority Leader John Thune may just have created a silver lining for the pending CLARITY Act. The senior lawmaker from South Dakota made a last-minute filing for a cloture vote scheduled for September 15 to end a filibuster and limit debate on the legislation. For Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty, the development opens a window that could potentially crank up the bill’s momentum toward a final vote.
Alderoty, who also serves as President of the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA), told The Block during the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium that “there is a viable path for CLARITY.” He pointed out that the mid-September cloture vote will be a “bellwether mark” for the digital asset market structure bill.
September 15: A Make-or-Break in the CLARITY Act’s Momentum
The Ripple CLO stated that the 60 votes to seal the procedural vote would significantly advance the CLARITY Act, indicating it could reach President Donald Trump for signature before 2026 ends. On the other hand, its repeated failure would further delay passage as focus shifts to the midterm elections and Congress heads for a long recess between the first week of October and the second week of November.
Alderoty highlighted that the latter would make the US “miss an incredible opportunity” and “alienate some of those economic benefits” arising from regulatory certainty in the digital asset space.
Citing an NCA study, Alderoty estimated that there are approximately 232,000 crypto-adjacent jobs in the US. These sectors generate $55 million in economic activity, translating into higher government revenues. Hence, missing out on the CLARITY Act would mean driving them offshore.
During the conversation, Alderoty busted the myth that crypto ownership is only concentrated among young men in fintech. He said NCA research found that the number of crypto holders over 55 is the same as those under 25, and that one-third of them are women.
The Silver Lining in US Crypto Regulation
Furthermore, Alderoty believes the current efforts of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will ensure regulatory clarity in crypto, regardless of whether the Senate approves or rejects the CLARITY Act. Still, he prefers an outcome in which the bill passes, as it will establish a stronger framework for safeguarding innovation and consumer-issuer protections in the digital asset industry.
