‘CLARITY Act Is Dead’ in Washington, Ex Federal Prosecutor Says

What Mariotti Heard

Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, spent the week in Washington and subsequently posted his thoughts on his sojourn, claiming that members of Congress and their staff told him unequivocally that:

CLARITY is dead. Congress is entering a post-CLARITY era.

He paired the bill’s stall with the Ninth Circuit’s ruling against prediction markets like Kalshi and New Jersey’s push to take that fight to the Supreme Court. The verdict was starker than anything the industry’s own advocates have said in public, with Bitwise’s Matt Hougan calling the bill “walking dead” in August.

What Lummis Is Counting

Lummis answered subsequently, with the Wyoming Republican taking to X to post:

If the Clarity Act doesn’t pass this Congress, the next real opportunity to bring market structure legislation back up is 2030. That’s years of jobs, investment, and tax revenue we can avoid squandering if we finish this now.

The 2030 date is not new, as she has brought up the date many times over the past half a year. What is, however, new is the calendar. House leaders cut eight voting days from September, and the chamber leaves Washington on Sept. 17, two days after the Senate vote, not returning until after the Nov. 3 midterms.

If the Senate passes an amended bill, the House has 48 hours to act on it. Anything after that waits for a new Congress, then a presidential cycle.

The negotiating room emptied a month ago. Sen. Bernie Moreno declared the talks “officially ended” on Aug. 8 and said there was “absolutely nothing to iron out.” The White House’s Patrick Witt set the deadline three days later, adding:

If they can’t get there by September 15, they never will.

Markets React

Polymarket’s contract on the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 has traded between 13% and 18% over the past week, down from 82% in February, on more than $11.5 million of volume. Kalshi’s market on whether more than 58 senators vote yes sits at 19%. Ian Katz of Capital Alpha Partners cut his enactment estimate from about 40% to 25% at the end of August, and Galaxy Research has it at 10%.

Traders are not doubting that a vote happens (given Kalshi priced a Senate vote before Oct. 1 at 91%), they are doubting that anything follows it.

Lastly, the vote on Sept. 15 is a cloture motion on the motion to proceed. It needs 60 votes. Republicans hold 53 seats, and leadership has said it expects all of them, though Sens. Josh Hawley and Jerry Moran have raised community-banking objections. That means seven Democrats must cross, the same seven who declined before the August recess.

Winning it does not pass the bill, but rather lets the Senate begin debating a package that still has three open fights, namely:

• Ethics rules for officials who hold crypto
• Stablecoin rewards that banks call deposit competition
• Protections for decentralized finance (DeFi) developers

Losing it, however, confirms what Mariotti’s sources already told him, and it starts Lummis’s clock.