There were many conductors in the derailment of the crypto industry's Clarity Act

Apart from the ethics debate, the most pernicious point of contention was whether the bill would halt stablecoin rewards that resemble (and could compete with) bank deposit accounts. That was a factor that drew Republican opposition, such as the no from Senator Josh Hawkley of Missouri, who said last month that he opposed the bill.

Lame duck

This week's failure doesn't limit lawmakers from trying a much more difficult and long-odds effort in what's known as the "lame duck" session of Congress, about four weeks between the election and the winter holidays. Republican Senator John Kennedy told journalist Eleanor Terrett that it could come back in that period.

Overall, the industry's legislative scorecard for this congressional session was far and away stronger than it ever had been. It got the hugely significant stablecoin issuer bill into law last year, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which drew a huge bipartisan vote. The Clarity Act made a good showing when it cleared the House of Representatives, and it reached a Senate vote — unprecedented progress for market structure legislation.

And the House, where market structure momentum has always been strongest, isn't throwing in the towel after the Senate's failure. The two chairmen of the House Agriculture Committee and the House Financial Services Committee issued a joint statement on Tuesday that said they're still supporting action in Congress, but that they'll help out at the regulator level in the meantime.