As a former financial regulator, I understand that no law can prevent every market failure or stop every bad actor. Fraud exists in all markets, at all scales, but strict rules can mitigate the worst consequences. They give visibility to regulators, set obligations on companies before consumers are interested in their products, and require companies to operate with fundamental and enforceable accountability. The bill is often described as crypto market structure legislation. This description is accurate, but it does not reflect the true magnitude of the situation. Market structure is the legal architecture that determines who must register with which agency, who oversees the market, what companies owe their customers, how assets are protected, what information must be disclosed, and what happens if something goes wrong.
Today, millions of Americans already use digital asset exchanges, brokers, traders, and custodians. They open accounts, buy and sell assets, rely on platforms to execute transactions, and often trust intermediaries to hold their assets. If these companies want to serve American consumers, they must operate under clear federal rules.
The Clarity Act would create these rules. Digital asset intermediaries would be required to register, comply with capital and risk management standards, maintain records, disclose material information to retail clients, monitor markets, resolve conflicts of interest and follow rules of conduct covering fraud, manipulation, marketing, supervision and fair pricing. These are fundamental guarantees in mature financial markets. They should apply here too.
