BlockBeats news, September 16 — The U.S. Senate held a key procedural vote early this morning on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (the CLARITY Act) to decide whether to end debate on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill, with a threshold of 60 votes.

The vote ultimately ended 50 in favor and 50 against. This means the CLARITY Act cannot enter formal Senate consideration in the near term. The bill still has a foundation of support in principle, but the current version failed to form a sufficiently broad bipartisan coalition.

The outcome means that in the next vote, at least 10 senators who voted against would need to switch sides, or an equivalent number of new supporters would need to be secured after renegotiation. In bipartisan Senate legislation, a 10-vote gap already represents significant resistance for the bill. Even if 60 votes are secured in the future, the bill would still need to go through amendments, a possible second cloture vote, and final passage.

In the final whip-count phase before the vote, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, a leading driver of U.S. crypto legislation, said the revised bill has added more ethics constraints, a mechanism for state attorneys general to participate in enforcement, authority to address stablecoin deposit outflow risks, and protections for developers, and that the relevant compromises are enough to create conditions for bipartisan advancement of the bill.

She also described this procedural vote as a key window, saying that if the bill cannot even clear the 60-vote threshold to enter formal consideration, the room for subsequent negotiations will narrow markedly, and continued delay will leave the United States behind other countries in the competition over digital asset regulation and financial innovation.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren also spoke before the vote, warning that the current bill text fails to sufficiently constrain potential conflicts of interest from the president and senior officials participating in crypto businesses, and that without stricter ethics and consumer protection provisions, the legislation would leave room for politicians to profit from the digital asset market.

Warren said she supports establishing clearer regulatory rules for the crypto industry, but rulemaking should not give politicians and their families special access. She focused in particular on the Trump family's continuously expanding crypto business, arguing that as Congress advances a market structure bill, it must also address conflicts of interest involving public officials' own ventures, token issuance, and stablecoin businesses.

BlockBeats news, September 16 — U.S. Senator John Kennedy said he was not surprised that the CLARITY Act failed to pass this Senate vote, but believes the bill is not completely dead. He said Democratic lawmakers also understand that the United States needs to establish a crypto market structure regulatory framework that "looks carefully designed," but related legislation may have to wait until Congress's lame-duck session to move forward.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz, citing a classic line from the film The Princess Bride, said: "There's a big difference between 'dead' and 'mostly dead.' I hope it can come back to life." Cruz blamed Democrats for the bill's blockage, saying they "brought politics into it," and warned this could push the crypto industry and related jobs overseas.

BlockBeats note: A "lame-duck session" refers to the transition period after the U.S. election and before the new Congress is formally sworn in. At this time, some lawmakers may have lost their races or are confirmed to be leaving soon, but they still retain the powers of sitting members, so Congress can continue to deliberate and vote on bills. Because the power structure of the old and new Congresses has already been determined, this period is usually seen as a window for handling unfinished legislation, budgets, and other important issues. Therefore, some bills that were not completed during the regular session may be left for the lame-duck session to be pushed again.

BlockBeats news, September 16 — The vote on the CLARITY Act has entered its final stage, with a total of 89 lawmakers currently counted, comprising 46 votes in favor and 43 votes against.

As this procedural vote requires at least 60 votes in favor to pass, based on the current voting results, it is essentially certain that it will not pass, assuming no one changes their vote.

This voting result only means that the CLARITY Act temporarily cannot proceed to formal Senate deliberation. It does not mean the bill is permanently dead, nor does it represent a final rejection of the bill. It signifies that the Senate cannot end the procedural debate on "whether to proceed to deliberation," and the bill temporarily cannot enter subsequent amendment discussions.

BlockBeats news, September 16: U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke in the Senate on the eve of the procedural vote on the CLARITY Act, warning that the current bill text fails to adequately constrain the potential conflicts of interest arising from the President and senior officials participating in crypto businesses. Without stricter ethics and consumer protection provisions, the related legislation will leave room for politicians to profit from the digital asset market.

Warren said she supports establishing clearer regulatory rules for the crypto industry, but rulemaking should not give politicians and their families special access. She is particularly concerned about the Trump family's continuously expanding crypto businesses, arguing that as Congress advances market structure legislation, it must simultaneously address conflicts of interest involving public officials' own ventures, token issuance, and stablecoin businesses.

To this end, Warren and several Democratic lawmakers are pushing for a vote on legislation to restrict the President and senior officials from involvement in related financial businesses, and are seeking to incorporate "preventing presidential financial corruption" into the crypto legislation discussion.

As of press time, voting on the CLARITY Act is still ongoing.

BlockBeats news, September 16 — The U.S. Senate is holding a procedural vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (the CLARITY Act), with the presiding officer currently conducting a roll call vote. Senators will decide whether to end debate on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill, with a threshold of 60 votes.

If the vote passes, the bill will only then move to full Senate debate, amendment, and subsequent final votes; this does not mean the bill will pass directly tonight, still less that it will take effect immediately.

For the crypto industry, the significance of this vote lies in whether Washington is willing to establish a clearer federal regulatory framework for digital assets.

The voting process is expected to last about 10 minutes, with the final result confirmed in roughly half an hour.

BlockBeats news, September 16: The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) announced on September 15 local time that two Robinhood engineers, Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang, also known as Jerry Xiang, have been charged with commodities fraud and wire fraud for allegedly using confidential company information to trade Hyperliquid perpetual contracts.

SDNY said that during their employment at Robinhood, the two had access to confidential information about new token listings and listing timing at Robinhood Crypto. Between 2025 and 2026, they allegedly bought Hyperliquid perpetual contracts for the relevant tokens multiple times before the company publicly announced the listings, and profited after the news became public; each allegedly made more than $50,000 in profits.

Prosecutors emphasized that although perpetual contracts are traded on on-chain derivatives platforms, they are still financial instruments that can be subject to liability. U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said that corporate insiders cannot evade laws governing securities and commodities markets by trading perpetual contracts, tokenized securities, or other similar financial products.

The case will also become an important signal for the regulation of on-chain derivatives. In the past, trading before token listings was mostly viewed by the market as a matter of informational advantage within the crypto industry; SDNY's direct filing of commodities fraud and wire fraud charges means law enforcement will more clearly extend traditional insider information rules to decentralized perpetual contract markets.

According to the announcement, 36-year-old Chai will appear in the Northern District of California, and 30-year-old Xiang will appear in the federal court for the Southern District of New York. The two face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for commodities trading law violations and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud. SDNY emphasized that the contents of the indictment at this stage are allegations only, and both defendants are presumed innocent until a court ruling.

BlockBeats news, September 16 — At 2:15 AM Beijing time on September 16, the U.S. Senate will hold a key procedural vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (the CLARITY Act). Senators will decide whether to end debate on the motion to proceed to the bill, with a 60-vote threshold. If the vote passes, the bill will only then move to full Senate debate, amendments, and a subsequent final vote; this is not equivalent to the bill passing directly tonight, let alone immediately taking effect.

For the crypto industry, the significance of this vote lies in whether Washington is willing to establish a clearer federal regulatory framework for digital assets. The bill aims to further clarify the classification of digital assets, the responsibilities of regulatory agencies, and the compliance obligations of trading platforms, while also covering anti-money laundering and investor protection, among other areas. The issue that has long plagued trading platforms, token issuers, and institutional capital is precisely whether assets should be primarily regulated by the SEC or the CFTC; if the bill advances, the market will begin to reassess the compliance costs and growth potential of U.S. crypto businesses.

To secure bipartisan support, Senate Republicans accepted 126 substantive amendments proposed by Democrats in the final draft. The new text incorporates stricter ethics provisions, gives state attorneys general a clearer enforcement role; at the same time, it grants the Treasury Secretary intervention authority to address possible deposit outflows caused by payment stablecoins, and revises developer-related provisions to reduce the risk that developers of decentralized infrastructure are deemed money transmitters.

However, the bill's most difficult obstacle remains political rather than technical. Democrats are concerned that the Trump family's crypto business may create conflicts of interest, and some lawmakers want to add constraints such as asset divestiture or blind trusts; moderate senators such as Warner and Gallego still hope to push for more amendments. On the other side, some Republican lawmakers are also under pressure from the banking industry, fearing that yield-bearing stablecoin accounts will drain community bank deposits. The 60-vote threshold means that if even a few Democrats or Republicans do not support it, the procedural motion could be blocked.

The market has already entered a defensive posture in advance. During U.S. stock trading before the vote, Bitcoin briefly fell below $77,000, down nearly 3% intraday; crypto-related stocks such as Strategy, Coinbase, Robinhood, and Circle generally weakened. Prediction markets' expectations for the bill being enacted within the year have also fluctuated significantly, reflecting that capital still does not regard a legislative breakthrough as a high-certainty event.

If the procedural vote crosses the 60-vote threshold, the market will view it as a signal of a substantive breakthrough in U.S. crypto legislation, and native crypto assets, trading platforms, and stablecoin-related targets may see a recovery in policy expectations; if the vote fails, industry expectations will once again return to the path of regulatory agency rulemaking and case-by-case enforcement, and short-term risk premiums may continue to rise. Tonight's focus is not whether the CLARITY Act will immediately become law, but whether the two U.S. parties can prove that a viable legislative path for crypto regulation still exists.

BlockBeats news, September 16 — U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent attended a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee tonight. In his opening statement, he said the U.S. economy is regaining momentum and, citing the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow model, projected that real GDP growth could reach an annualized 4.4% in the third quarter. This figure is a high-frequency model forecast, not the final GDP figure published by the U.S. government; but as markets worry that high interest rates are beginning to erode consumption and business investment, Bessent clearly hopes to use the growth projection to show that the U.S. economy can still withstand the current level of interest rates.

The second main thread centered on the bond market. Facing questions over the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield breaking above 5%, Bessent said the dollar remains a strong global reserve currency, and that the performance of the last two U.S. Treasury auctions ranked among the strongest of the past two decades. He argued that higher long-end yields will more likely reflect global factors rather than a loss of market confidence in the United States' fiscal and financing capacity. That statement amounted to a defense of the Treasury's recent debt issuance and buyback operations: the government wants the market to believe that demand for Treasuries, the auction process, and the dollar system remain stable.

The most politically and market-sensitive remarks came from Trump's proposal for a $5,000 payment to every adult. Bessent said Trump's intent to advance the plan is "very real," and linked it to whether Republicans can keep control of the House and Senate after the midterm elections. He did not disclose the funding source, eligibility details, or implementation timeline, saying only that there are ways to do it without expanding the federal deficit; if congressional legislation is needed, the Treasury will work with House Speaker Johnson.

BlockBeats news, September 15 — According to TradingBeats monitoring, the address of "Machi Big Brother" 0x020...5872 has continued to reduce its long positions today. Although it refilled positions multiple times during the period, based on cumulative closed position transaction volume, it has reduced positions by approximately $125 million.

Among these, the address cumulatively reduced approximately 697 BTC, with a transaction volume of approximately $53.41 million; cumulatively reduced approximately 26,315 ETH, with a transaction volume of approximately $64.64 million; and cumulatively reduced approximately 88,750 HYPE, with a transaction volume of approximately $7.03 million.

Position reductions were especially concentrated in the evening. The address gradually reduced its BTC long position from approximately 369 BTC to zero, and reduced its ETH long position from nearly 40,000 ETH to 20,000 ETH. As of press time, the address no longer holds BTC or HYPE positions, and only holds a 20,000 ETH 25x leveraged long position, valued at approximately $47.93 million, with a current unrealized loss of approximately $1.84 million.