Trump Urges Congress to Pass the CLARITY Act
Trump urged Congress to pass the "fair version" of the CLARITY Act, stating it would open doors for the next wave of financial innovation and entrepreneurs; this statement came from a meeting between the White House and executives from the crypto industry.
The CLARITY Act aims to establish market structure rules for digital assets, focusing on distinguishing the jurisdiction of the SEC and CFTC over different crypto assets and related trading activities, defining the responsibilities of trading platforms and intermediaries, and providing a framework for the transition of assets from securities to non-securities.
The bill has passed the House with 294 votes in favor and 134 against, but the Senate has yet to complete its review and vote. Even if the Senate passes it, further coordination with the House version may be required, and it must be signed by the President to become law; current policy statements cannot be viewed as legislative outcomes.
Controversies center around whether stablecoin rewards will change competition for bank deposits, what customer protection and market monitoring obligations platforms should bear, the boundaries of responsibility for digital asset developers and DeFi protocols, and the ethical issues arising from government officials and their affiliated businesses participating in the crypto market. These disagreements will determine the final text of the bill and its speed of passage.
The SEC's recent proposed rules in the "Regulation Crypto Assets" could set a $5 million four-year startup exemption and a $75 million annual financing exemption for certain token financing, but the rules cannot independently resolve the regulatory division of the digital asset spot market; the value of the CLARITY Act lies in establishing cross-sector legal boundaries for the SEC, CFTC, exchanges, custodians, issuers, and banks.
In terms of market mechanisms, the clear policy buyers are exchanges and asset issuers that require U.S. registration, customer access, bank settlement, custody, market making, and institutional funds; legislation will reduce legal uncertainty, encouraging capital to flow into compliant systems, licenses, audits, risk control, and on-chain financial infrastructure. The short-term market will trade on statements and procedural progress, benefiting mainstream assets, compliant trading platforms, and custodial service providers; if the bill is delayed due to partisan negotiations or disputes over key terms, expected policy funds may retract, and offshore market structures will continue to take on more business.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
The U.S. crypto industry has long oscillated between two regulatory logics: one where the SEC determines on a case-by-case basis whether an issuance is a security based on the Howey test, and another where the CFTC views Bitcoin and others as commodities and regulates related derivatives. The blocking of Telegram's Gram issuance in 2019, the Ripple lawsuit in 2020, and the Coinbase and Binance cases in 2023 have all exposed the lack of unified market structure rules between token issuance, secondary trading, and trading platform functions. The CLARITY Act attempts to transform such judicial and enforcement disputes into a codified classification and registration system.
Capital pathways first transmit through changes in risk discount. Project teams have often used offshore foundations, geographic restrictions, private token sales, or SAFT structures to evade U.S. uncertainties; exchanges have been forced to limit token listings, staking, and derivatives services. If the bill clarifies asset classification, trading venue registration, and customer protection obligations, companies can invest capital into U.S. entities, fiat channels, custodial insurance, market monitoring, and compliance technology without having to continuously reserve large legal risk provisions for potential lawsuits.
Historically, the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act provided a statutory framework for certain derivative activities, promoting the expansion of trading and clearing infrastructure; the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act brought swap trading under reporting, central clearing, and capital constraints after the financial crisis. The CLARITY Act is at a similar institutionalization stage: technology has created markets, and the next step is to determine which entities bear the risks of customer assets, information disclosure, leverage, and market manipulation.
At its core, it is about regulatory change. Innovation does not automatically arise from legislation, but capital will not make large-scale, long-term investments in a market with unclear responsibilities. If the bill passes, the biggest beneficiaries may not be the most radical token projects, but platforms that can integrate issuance, trading, custody, clearing, and bank settlement into a compliant system; regulatory certainty will expand the market, raise entry barriers, and drive industry consolidation.
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