Sen. Cynthia Lummis is urging Democrats to support the revised Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, arguing that the latest Senate draft reflects more than 100 changes they requested during negotiations. With a cloture vote set for Sept. 15, she framed opposition to the bill as a retreat from language Democrats helped shape.

The renewed pressure comes as the legislation approaches a key procedural test in the Senate. Republicans hold 53 seats, so the bill will need support from roughly seven Democrats to reach the 60 votes required for cloture if Republican backing stays intact.

Lummis points to Democratic revisions

On Sept. 12, Lummis said Democrats had already won substantial concessions in the updated bill and should now vote to advance it. She said the revised text includes more than 115 Democratic victories and highlighted changes that she said were pushed by the other party, including a felony bar for fraudsters, $150 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and tougher treatment of platforms that present themselves as decentralized while remaining under meaningful control.

A revised draft circulated on Sept. 10 runs about 630 pages. According to the bill’s supporters, the changes made during the August recess were not merely technical edits but substantive revisions to market oversight, enforcement, and disclosure rules for the digital asset sector.

What the updated draft contains

The latest version would add restrictions aimed at keeping convicted fraudsters out of regulated digital asset markets and would provide the CFTC with $150 million to expand supervision and enforcement. It also narrows some decentralized finance provisions to spot and cash digital commodity transactions.

The draft further says that protocols that can be materially controlled or altered by a person or coordinated group could be subject to CFTC registration and Bank Secrecy Act requirements. It also clarifies that credit unions may use digital assets and distributed ledger technology for activities they are already allowed to conduct.

Holdouts remain focused on ethics rules

Despite the revisions, the main dispute now appears to center on provisions that were not fully resolved. A group of Democratic senators identified with the holdout bloc includes Angela Alsobrooks, Cory Booker, Catherine Cortez Masto, Ruben Gallego, John Hickenlooper, Mark Warner and Raphael Warnock.

Their concerns focus heavily on ethics and conflict-of-interest rules, especially those covering public officials and their spouses issuing or sponsoring digital assets. Democrats have also pushed for stronger enforcement authority and changes to a 2029 sunset provision. At the same time, the White House has opposed extending the restrictions and has warned that doing so could cost Republican support, complicating the final negotiations.

A procedural vote with larger consequences

The Senate is scheduled to hold a cloture vote on the motion to proceed at 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 15. That vote would not be final passage, but it would determine whether the bill can continue moving through the chamber.

The measure has already cleared several major steps. The House passed it in July 2025 by a 294-134 vote, with 78 Democrats in favor, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced its version 15-9 in May. Still, no full public whip count has shown that the needed Democratic votes are secured. If the cloture attempt fails, the legislative calendar could become a bigger obstacle, with the 2026 midterm cycle threatening to push another broad market structure effort into 2027 or later.

Markets remain skeptical about enactment

Prediction markets have so far shown limited confidence that the legislation will become law soon. On Polymarket, traders gave the CLARITY Act a 23% chance of being signed into law before Dec. 31, with more than $15.2 million traded on that contract.

Kalshi traders also signaled caution, pricing comprehensive crypto market structure legislation at a 34% chance of enactment before July 1, 2027, 40% before Oct. 1 and 46% before Jan. 1, 2028. Those markets do not determine Senate votes, but they reflect continued uncertainty around the bill’s path. The next confirmed step is the Sept. 15 cloture vote, where the central question is whether Republicans can find the roughly seven Democratic votes needed to keep the legislation alive.

Source: news.bitcoin.com