U.S. House panel pushes CLARITY Act as digital asset framework remains pending

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CLARITY Act and digital assets

Highlights

House Subcommittee on Digital Assets held a New York field hearing to advance the CLARITY Act, aiming for digital asset innovation and defined U.S. leadership.
Lawmakers and industry witnesses argue regulatory uncertainty and SEC-CFTC overlap have driven companies and capital to the EU, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, and UAE.
The CLARITY Act proposes regulatory clarity by defining token categorization as security or digital commodity, addressing long-standing market structure gaps and stalled Senate action.

New York hearing renews legislative push

As reported by House Committee on Financial Services, the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence holds a field hearing at Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City to examine how the CLARITY Act could support innovation, consumer protection, and U.S. leadership in digital assets.

Full Committee Chairman French Hill says clear and predictable rules are central to financial oversight and argues the U.S. needs a framework that supports the shift from traditional finance to blockchain-based systems. Subcommittee Chairman Bryan Steil says the committee has worked with the House Agriculture Committee since 2017 to build a durable framework that replaces what he calls regulation by enforcement with clear rules for digital assets.

Several Republican lawmakers frame the bill as part of a broader competitiveness agenda. Representatives William Timmons and Tim Moore say legal certainty is necessary for the U.S. to remain at the center of the global economy, while Moore adds that past uncertainty has pushed some companies to move offshore.

Industry cites overseas drift and regulatory overlap

Lawmakers and industry witnesses say the lack of a defined market structure continues to create uncertainty over whether digital assets fall under securities or commodities rules. Dan Meuser says the legislation is intended to expand capital formation opportunities, while Marlin Stutzman says Senate inaction is delaying faster payments, around-the-clock markets, and domestic innovation.

Witnesses focus on the division of oversight between the SEC and the CFTC. Sarah Aberg, chief legal officer at Nova Labs Inc., says the bill seeks appropriate regulation rather than deregulation and is designed to assign supervision based on whether a token functions as a security or a digital commodity.

Randi Abernethy of Bullish says firms have faced years of uncertainty over jurisdiction, trading, custody, and clearing rules, encouraging capital and innovation to move to the European Union, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Ryan Louvar of WisdomTree says the central problem for the industry has been the absence of a clear answer on which regulator oversees which activity, and argues the CLARITY Act would address that gap.

In our earlier update on Coinbase (COIN), we noted the stock was trading under selling pressure, with bearish technical signals outweighing near-term optimism tied to Brian Armstrong’s comments on internal innovation. The piece also highlighted that regulatory uncertainty and related operational concerns were still weighing on sentiment, keeping the outlook range-bound and fragile.

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