Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said he is optimistic the CLARITY Act will pass the Senate in September, expecting the legislation to secure the 60 votes required for cloture, according to a recent CNBC interview. The Senate has scheduled a procedural vote on the bill for September 15.
The 60-vote threshold represents the procedural bar to advance legislation past a potential filibuster in the chamber. Armstrong's confidence comes after months of effort by Coinbase and other industry players to shape digital asset regulation. The bill would establish clearer jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC for cryptocurrency oversight and set guardrails for staking arrangements and custody practices.
Armstrong acknowledged that ethics provisions tied to President Donald Trump's crypto holdings remain contested. The White House has proposed ethics language it is willing to include in the measure, Armstrong said, though he did not detail the exact language or whether it would resolve the outstanding disputes. Ethics clauses around principals with financial interests in an industry under new regulation have traditionally required disclosure or recusal language in Congress.
The CLARITY Act has attracted bipartisan sponsorship since its introduction, with co-sponsors from both parties. Industry groups including the Blockchain Association and trade groups representing digital asset exchanges and custodians have publicly supported the measure. The September 15 vote date gives proponents roughly three weeks to secure commitments from senators whose positions remain unclear.
Armstrong's statement that the bill will reach 60 votes assumes no material erosion of existing support and successful negotiation of the ethics language before the scheduled date. If the Senate holds the vote as planned on September 15 and the bill fails to clear 60 votes, the pathway for crypto legislation would narrow significantly in the remaining months before the general election in November.
