Since early August, VICO stayed consistently low on the CLARITY Act, the bill meant to split crypto oversight between the SEC and CFTC, never putting passage above 7% even as the industry treated it as alive.

The CLARITY Act was Congress’s attempt to write the first comprehensive federal rules for crypto markets; most importantly, defining which digital assets fall under the SEC and which fall under the CFTC. 

Yesterday the act failed a Senate vote, all but confirming it is dead until the next Congress, where a version would have to be introduced from scratch.

Multiple crypto heavy stocks fell hard after the bill’s failure.

The legislative path stays narrow at 30%, because VICO reads the bill's problem as ideological, not procedural. The fight over how much ground to cede to crypto does not reset with a new Congress, so it likely carries over intact.

That pushes the action to the agencies, where VICO gives it 62% that the SEC and CFTC issue joint guidance or open a rulemaking before the end of 2027, doing by rule what Congress would not do by law. But rules can only go so far: the agencies can clarify what counts as a security, not hand the CFTC the spot-market authority only a statute can grant. The likely future is an administrative patch that falls short of what Congressional legislation could achieve.

The edge was timing: VICO held under 7% for six weeks while the bill was still written up as alive. 

The market was the one caught off guard, sending Coinbase and Circle both down about 10% on the vote.