House chair pushes CLARITY Act on crypto

TLDR

House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill is actively pushing Congress to revive the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act to create a stable federal framework for crypto markets.

1. The CLARITY Act would define which digital assets are securities or commodities and split oversight between the SEC and CFTC under a single statute.
2. Hill argues current SEC and CFTC rule proposals, while important, still leave crypto regulation dependent on reversible agency actions instead of lasting legislation.
3. The bill faces a narrow window in the lame duck session, so near term US crypto rules are likely to come from regulators, not Congress.

Deep Dive

1. What The CLARITY Act Would Do

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act aims to answer a core question in US crypto policy: which assets are securities and which are commodities, and who regulates what.

Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo described the bill as creating a single federal statute that assigns digital assets to either SEC or CFTC jurisdiction instead of relying on court cases and enforcement actions as de facto guidance. The House passed the bill in 2025, but it recently failed to advance in the Senate, leaving classification and market structure unsettled.

In practical terms, CLARITY would give exchanges, issuers and token projects a clearer roadmap for registration, disclosures and listing standards, and could reduce the risk that the same token is treated differently across venues or administrations.

2. Why Hill Says Agency Rules Fall Short

After the Senate setback, both the SEC and CFTC moved ahead with proposed crypto rulemakings on custody and leveraged trading. Hill acknowledges those efforts but says they still "fall short" of the permanence Congress can provide.

In a Fox Business interview reported by Cointelegraph, he urged colleagues to pass CLARITY in the lame duck session and argued that only a statute can give the US a durable framework to remain "number one in digital assets and blockchain technology." Regulators can revise or rescind their own rules, and a future administration could change course even if current proposals are finalized.

From a market perspective, that means crypto businesses must treat SEC and CFTC initiatives as important but potentially temporary, while CLARITY is framed as the long term anchor.

3. What To Watch Next

Near term, the most concrete changes will likely come from regulators, not Congress. The CFTC has already sent two frameworks for leveraged retail crypto trading and new crypto market licenses to the White House for review, and opened public comment on them, while the SEC is pursuing parallel custody and market structure rules.

Hill is betting on a narrow legislative window between the November midterms and the new Congress in 2027, when the Senate has only a few dozen sitting days and vote outcomes will be shaped by election results. Reviving CLARITY in that period is possible but uncertain given recent opposition and ethics debates.

For crypto users and builders, the key signals will be 1) whether CLARITY gets scheduled for another Senate vote, and 2) how far SEC and CFTC go in finalizing their own rules if Congress does not act.

Conclusion

French Hills push to resurrect the CLARITY Act highlights the gap between temporary agency rulemaking and a stable statutory framework for US crypto markets.

Until Congress acts, SEC and CFTC proposals will shape how exchanges, stablecoins and leveraged products operate, but their reversibility keeps long term uncertainty in place. Watching both the lame duck legislative calendar and the progress of agency rulemakings is critical for understanding how US crypto regulation will evolve.