Unchained · Thursday, September 17, 2026
The recent failure of the Clarity bill in the Senate has resulted in no clear winner, with participants across the political spectrum feeling left out. Democrats did not achieve ethical wins against Trump, banks saw no revisions to the Genius Act, and developer protections were not enacted. The general consensus is that the bill's failure represents a setback for all stakeholders, including those who worked on it for over a year.
“The Democrats didn't get any ethical wins against Trump. They didn't restrain Trump in any way. For all their talk and bluster, they achieved absolutely nothing. The banks made no revisions to how Genius works. There is still no prohibition on yield being paid on stable coins effectively through how they see it. Right? Through rewards. We didn't get an expanded AML KYC, you know, set of hooks for the that contingent of people. The status quo still holds. We didn't get any developer protections at all. Nobody got what they wanted.”
“Staff on both the Republican and Democratic sides worked for over a year on this, right? It wasted so much time effort. Everyone is a loser coming out of this process.”
“I will say the one thing I think we can take away is that the banks lost. Yes. Because the banks were fighting to get a renegotiation of Genius. And the, basically the rewards language in Genius Act stands. No, everybody lost.”