Sanders and McKenzie call the crypto market structure bill “corrupt” and press senators to reject it, as leaders struggle to find floor time before recess
Senator Bernie Sanders and actor Ben McKenzie urged senators to vote against the CLARITY Act in a 30 July discussion that Sanders posted to his channels, arguing the crypto market structure bill would weaken oversight of an industry that spends heavily to shape elections. The Senate could take the bill up before its August recess, though leaders have not scheduled a vote.
McKenzie, who released a crypto-fraud documentary last year, described cryptocurrency as an asset class used mainly for speculation, saying most retail buyers treat it as gambling because tokens carry none of the cash flows, products or services that underpin traditional securities.
“The people that win over and over again are the people that issue these cryptocurrencies and the people that run the crypto exchanges,” he said.
Sanders, who called the bill “corrupt” in remarks on 29 July, said crypto companies are lobbying for its passage as payback for their campaign spending. McKenzie put crypto-related political action committee spending at roughly $240m (USD) during the 2024 election cycle, and a separate report found the industry spent $189m (USD) this cycle, or 37% of all corporate political spending.
CLARITY Act: What the bill would do
The CLARITY Act would set a federal market structure for digital assets and split oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), moving much of the day-to-day supervision to the CFTC. McKenzie said that shift would hand crypto firms lighter treatment than traditional financial companies, because the CFTC holds far fewer resources than the SEC.
McKenzie’s main objection concerns ethics: the bill contains no provision to stop elected officials from profiting through crypto businesses while in office. He pointed to President Donald Trump, whose financial disclosures tied about $1.4bn (USD) in 2025 income to his crypto ventures. Senator Elizabeth Warren has made the same argument, saying the draft does nothing to stop Trump from further crypto profit.
The vote is not yet scheduled
The Senate had not placed the CLARITY Act on its floor schedule as of 3 August, and no cloture motion had been filed, even though the House passed its version in July 2025 by 294-134 and the Senate Banking Committee advanced its own measure in May by 15-9.
The two Democrats who backed it in committee have since made their support conditional on an ethics provision covering senior officials, language the merged draft has not settled.
Passage requires 60 votes to clear a filibuster, and Republicans control a majority thinned further by the death of Senator Lindsey Graham on 11 July, leaving the bill needing at least seven Democrats or independents. A cloture filing on Wednesday 5 August could produce a Friday vote on whether to proceed, not on final passage, days before the Senate breaks for its August recess.
