Ten Days Prior to the Crucial Vote, the CLARITY Act Loses a Significant Opponent

The CLARITY Act has just lost a major opponent, which is the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA). This latter, who for months had been blocking the crypto regulation text, has now thrown in the towel… this, ten days before the crucial vote in the Senate. And meanwhile, another little bomb is circulating and this could plunge the market and bitcoin.

The CLARITY Act Pauses as the Sheriff Surrenders

After months of bombarding the US Senate, the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) finally bows the knee. Although it still does not support the CLARITY Act, it does stop putting obstacles in its way, and that’s already quite something. A neutrality rather than outright opposition that could change everything with only ten days left until the final vote scheduled for September 15, 2026. This vote that requires 60 votes, Republicans alone already hold 53 of them.

So they needed to convince at least seven reluctant Democrats, including Catherine Cortez Masto, who precisely relied on these sheriffs’ opposition letters to justify her vote against. This turnaround, or this neutrality, therefore loses much of its strength today. But not everything is won yet because there remains Section 604, which protects crypto software developers. These can be treated like fund managers, which is a boon for innovation advocates. But, a nightmare for those who track money laundering.

What if the Crypto Market Itself Posed the True Threat?

While Washington negotiates with the Sheriffs, the crypto market itself is already worried about a very different scenario. Once voted, could the CLARITY Act become a classic “sell the news” event?, wonders Alice Liu, head of research at CoinMarketCap. For her, the crypto market has already priced in the news. So the day the text actually passes, there will be nothing left to buy, everyone will sell, and the long-awaited regulatory clarity will turn into a pretext for profit taking.

A mechanism already seen over and over in the crypto ecosystem, certainly, but which today takes on a particular flavor given the scale of the file. Alice Liu predicts among other things that bitcoin will climb to 500,000 dollars by 2030. However, she is much colder on AI tokens, which she judges to be driven more by narrative speculation than by real utility.

The CLARITY Act therefore overcomes a major obstacle which is the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA). But, winning in the Senate guarantees nothing on the charts. Between the close of the vote and the “sell the news” threat, the real battle probably starts after September 15.