Saylor says SEC, CFTC and Treasury can advance Bitcoin rules without Congress

Michael Saylor said US crypto markets can continue developing even as the CLARITY Act remains stalled. He expects the SEC, CFTC and Treasury to pursue regulatory measures under existing law, alongside an expansion of bank services involving Bitcoin custody and lending against the crypto asset.

https://twitter.com/saylor/status/2100184378298994891?s=20

Saylor said he also expects greater capital allocation toward Bitcoin and digital credit, while the GENIUS Act provides support for stablecoin adoption. He said progress across these areas does not have to wait for Congress to pass additional legislation.

The vote that wasn’t

On September 15, 2026, the Senate held a cloture vote on the CLARITY Act. It failed 49–50, well short of the 60-vote threshold required to advance the legislation.

The bill, formally known as the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (H.R. 3633), was designed to draw clear jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC over digital assets. The CFTC would oversee digital commodities like Bitcoin, while the SEC would retain authority over tokens which function more like investment contracts.

The House passed the bill with bipartisan support on July 17, 2025. The Senate Banking Committee advanced it in mid-May 2026. But negotiations over stablecoin provisions and ethics requirements ground the process to a halt, and the final vote reflected a chamber that couldn’t agree on the fine print.

Saylor’s contrarian take

Saylor doesn’t see it that way. In his September 16 remarks, he argued that the SEC, CFTC, and Treasury already possess sufficient authority to establish rules governing digital assets without Congress handing them a new playbook.

His more memorable framing came a month earlier. On August 7, Saylor stated: “Bitcoin doesn’t need CLARITY. America needs clarity.”

He went further, forecasting that banks would expand Bitcoin custody services and Bitcoin-collateralized lending in the current environment.

Strategy’s massive Bitcoin position

Strategy Inc. holds 845,050 BTC, purchased for approximately $63.73 billion at an average price of roughly $75,412 per coin as of mid-September 2026.

Saylor also pointed to the GENIUS Act, which focuses specifically on stablecoin regulation, as evidence that Washington isn’t entirely gridlocked on crypto policy. The stablecoin framework has continued to advance on a separate legislative track, suggesting that Congress can make progress on narrower, more targeted bills even when broader market-structure reform stalls.