Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, the crypto industry is already turning to SEC and CFTC rulemaking after the CLARITY Act failed to advance, though a procedural path remains to revive the bill. Meanwhile, a House tax package left out a proposed tax deferral for mining and staking rewards.

Crypto industry turns to US regulators after CLARITY setback

Crypto industry leaders are looking to US financial regulators to fill the regulatory gap after a major crypto bill establishing a regulatory framework for digital assets stalled in the Senate on Tuesday.

The Senate voted 49-50 on a motion to invoke cloture and advance the CLARITY Act, short of the 60 votes needed as Democrats raised concerns over US President Donald Trump’s crypto investments. Industry executives said the result was a disappointment, but pointed to potential rulemaking from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission as the next best source of regulatory clarity. 

Speaking to Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction before Tuesday’s vote, Fireblocks US policy director Jessica Martinez said the company would continue engaging with regulators if the legislation failed.

“We’re going to continue working with the regulators, the SEC and the CFTC specifically,” Martinez said.

Meanwhile, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse on Tuesday, following the vote, said that US regulators will “continue to work hard to issue rules to fill the legislative gap,” as a reason to remain optimistic.

Their belief comes as SEC Chair Paul Atkins reiterated his commitment to deliver clearer crypto rules at the Solana Policy Institute Summit on Monday. However, there’s concern the solution won’t give long-term investors the same confidence that legislation would provide.

“Rejecting the bill leaves firms completely dependent on agency guidance and ongoing administrative discretion,” added NEAR chief legal officer Abhishek Vaidyanathan.

“Firms setting their 2027 budgets would face another prolonged delay, forcing them back into case-by-case judgments and repeated legal work while counterparties continue to price in regulatory uncertainty,” he added. 

Bitget Wallet chief operating officer Alvin Kan told Cointelegraph that failure to advance the bill on Tuesday brings “continued uncertainty over how securities, commodities and money-transmission rules apply across different products.”

US Senate blocks CLARTY Act in key procedural vote

The US Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act on Tuesday, dealing a setback to efforts to establish a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for digital assets.

The cloture motion fell well short of the 60 needed to move the legislation toward debate on the Senate floor. With limited legislative time remaining before a new Congress is sworn in, the failed vote puts the bill’s prospects for this year in doubt.

The CLARITY Act would define federal oversight of crypto markets, including the respective roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The vote followed months of negotiations over ethics restrictions and other provisions in the bill.

Crypto markets declined around the vote, with Bitcoin dropping below $76,000 as the legislation failed to advance.

US House crypto tax package omits mining, staking reward deferral

The US House Ways and Means Committee will consider a 114-page crypto tax package on Wednesday that leaves out a provision that would have allowed miners and stakers to defer taxation of rewards until the tokens are sold.

The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, was published alongside the committee’s markup notice on Monday. The package does not include the reward-timing provision contained in Representative Mike Carey’s Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, introduced in June.

The provision would have allowed taxpayers to choose between recognizing newly created tokens as income when received or treating them similarly to self-created property and paying tax when sold.

Without the provision, mining and staking rewards would remain taxable when received or brought under the recipient’s control, potentially before they are sold for cash.