Michael Saylor has urged the U.S. crypto industry to use existing regulatory paths and target 50 million users after the Senate’s Sept. 15 CLARITY Act cloture vote failed 49-50.
- 49 Senate votes supported cloture on CLARITY, leaving the motion eleven votes short of advancement.
- Saylor proposed targeting 50 million U.S. users before returning to Congress for focused legislation later.
- CLARITY would restrict stablecoin holding rewards while permitting qualifying activity-based incentives under defined regulatory conditions.
- SEC granted temporary relief for tokenized stock venues two days after the Senate cloture vote.
- CFTC sent crypto market rulemaking to White House review on September 17, public records show.
Strategy’s Sept. 19 policy essay on digital assets after CLARITY lays out Saylor’s preferred path for 2027 and 2028: expand compliant digital-asset products under current agency authority, build a large customer base, then pursue focused legislation where Congress is still needed.
The official Senate roll call shows 49 senators voted to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, while 50 voted against and one did not vote. The motion needed three-fifths support. It was a procedural vote on whether to begin consideration, not a final vote on passage.
Michael Saylor wants adoption before another CLARITY push
Michael Saylor said the industry should concentrate on products that lower costs, improve access and give users more control over money. His examples include Bitcoin custody and lending, digital credit, tokenized equity trading, exchanges combining regulated services, and dollar stablecoin payments.
The Strategy executive chairman set a target of 50 million U.S. users benefiting from such products. He argued that a large user base would create a constituency with a direct interest in keeping those services available, writing, “Adoption raises the political cost of reversal.” The 50 million figure is Saylor’s proposed policy target, not a government projection or adoption forecast.
Saylor’s position differs from the case made by CLARITY’s Senate sponsors. Sens. Cynthia Lummis, John Boozman and Tim Scott said their Sept. 14 draft would establish a statutory market structure while adding consumer, developer and ethics provisions after more than a year of negotiations. Their statement said the text contained 126 substantive changes requested by Democrats.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig has taken a two-track approach. In August, he said passage of CLARITY remained his preferred legislative outcome while directing staff to prepare possible rules under existing Commodity Exchange Act authority if Congress did not advance the bill.
CLARITY compromise would restrict some stablecoin rewards
The final Senate draft supports part of Michael Saylor’s description of the stablecoin provisions. Section 10404 would prohibit a covered digital-asset service provider from paying interest or yield to a U.S. customer solely for holding payment stablecoins, or through arrangements economically equivalent to an interest-bearing bank deposit.
The same section would permit bona fide activity-based or transaction-based rewards that are not equivalent to deposit interest. The text lists examples tied to payments, transfers, liquidity provision, collateral, governance, validation, staking and other qualifying product use.
A separate circuit-breaker would require Treasury action if the secretary determined within 18 months of enactment that transfers from community-bank interest-bearing deposits into payment stablecoins had caused substantial detrimental effects tied specifically to the regulated reward activity. The Senate sponsors described the provision as a tool to address deposit flight from community banks.
The separate GENIUS Act already prohibits permitted payment stablecoin issuers from paying holders interest or yield solely for holding, using or retaining a payment stablecoin. Its statutory effective-date provisions remain separate from CLARITY. Michael Saylor argued that the Senate compromise would place another layer of restrictions on service providers beyond the issuer rule.
Saylor raised a second objection to the proposed CFTC-SEC Micro-Innovation Sandbox. The Sept. 14 draft says eligible firms could employ no more than 25 people, report annual gross revenue of no more than $10 million and commit no more than $20 million in customer, investor or counterparty funds for sandbox activities. Each commission could approve no more than 20 projects per year.
SEC and CFTC are moving under existing authority
Two federal developments after the Senate vote match the regulatory path Michael Saylor cited, though neither creates the full statutory framework contemplated by CLARITY.
On Sept. 17, the SEC granted temporary, conditional exemptive relief allowing eligible Tokenized Securities Venues to trade certain tokenized National Market System stocks through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools. Eligible tokens must carry the same rights and privileges as the corresponding traditional shares, and issuers can object to their securities being traded through the framework.
As crypto.news reported in its coverage of the SEC order, the exemption creates a five-year conditional pathway for qualifying tokenized stocks. The SEC is seeking public feedback while considering further regulatory action.
The CFTC moved its process forward the same day. An Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs record shows the agency submitted “Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets” for White House review on Sept. 17. The entry lists the action at the prerule stage and shows no legal deadline.
As crypto.news reported on the CFTC submission, the filing follows Selig’s August direction to staff to explore a crypto market structure using existing authority. Selig had identified possible rules for leveraged or margined crypto trading through regulated markets and engagement with developers seeking lawful routes for onchain finance.
Bank regulators have taken separate steps under existing statutes. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in March 2025 that national banks and federal savings associations may conduct crypto custody, certain stablecoin activities and distributed-ledger node verification, subject to applicable law and risk controls. The OCC removed a prior supervisory non-objection requirement for those activities.
Treasury is working through the GENIUS Act on a different track. Its Aug. 17 proposed rule sought comment on implementing payment-stablecoin requirements, with Treasury identifying Jan. 18, 2027 as the expected effective date.
CLARITY remains available for another Senate attempt
The Sept. 15 vote did not remove H.R. 3633 from the Senate calendar. After the cloture motion failed, Sen. Thom Tillis made a motion to reconsider, according to the Senate’s daily floor record. No new cloture vote date had been announced in the official material reviewed as of Sept. 21.
Negotiations have continued outside the floor vote. As crypto.news reported after the Senate setback, seven Democratic senators who opposed cloture said the failed vote was not the end of negotiations. Any renewed attempt would still need enough support to meet the Senate’s procedural threshold before debate and amendments could begin.
The latest concrete agency update is now at OIRA. Its public docket lists CFTC rulemaking RIN 3038-AF80 as pending review, received Sept. 17, under the title “Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets.” The filing does not publish proposed rule text, and the prerule designation does not itself impose new trading or registration obligations.
