Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan believes that even if the CLARITY Act fails to pass this week, the crypto industry will continue to advance
Hougan states that the failure of CLARITY will not stop the progress of crypto.
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan believes that even if the CLARITY Act fails to pass this week, the crypto industry will continue to advance.
He emphasized that SEC Chair Atkins is ready to take action, and the regulatory momentum is shifting from Congress to administrative agencies and the industry itself.
Buying will continue to favor ETFs, custody, and compliance infrastructure, while selling pressure mainly comes from short-term trading that views passing the bill as the only catalyst; even if legislation is stalled, the institutionalization process will not stop.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Hougan's judgment is consistent with his usual framework: he has always believed that the true driving force behind crypto is not a single piece of legislation, but rather market structure and institutional access. He has previously emphasized that the importance of the CLARITY Act lies in solidifying existing regulatory loosening into a system, rather than merely creating a one-time market event.
In terms of capital pathways, if Congress stalls, the SEC's Project Crypto and Atkins' rule-making will continue to advance, meaning that trading, custody, disclosure, and asset classification will gradually become clearer. For the market, this pathway resembles "administrative leadership, legislative supplementation"; funds will continue to flow to platforms and infrastructure that already have compliance capabilities.
A comparable historical case is the expansion of the internet and fintech before legislation was fully implemented, relying first on regulatory guidance and industry self-discipline. The current crypto industry has shifted from "whether to legalize" to "how to operate compliantly," which is why Hougan believes that even if the bill fails, progress will not reverse.
Essentially, this is a change in regulation: the bill is merely an accelerator, not the engine; the reason this is happening is that institutional funds have already entered the market, and the market no longer waits for a piece of legislation to decide whether to build infrastructure.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
- The bill is an accelerator, not the engine.
- Rules must loosen before funds will enter the market.
- Once the direction of regulation is determined, the market will fill in the gaps.