“Today’s bill is a significant step toward the Senate vote on the Clarity Act we’ve been calling for,” Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone said in a statement. “We are encouraged and we are ready to continue working until the bill reaches the president’s desk.”
One thing that could come as a significant relief for the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry is that the section known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act remains intact, meaning that developers who do not control user assets will not be treated under the regulatory regime as “money transmitters,” with all the compliance burdens that would ensue. The draft also includes new language on federal preemption, provisional registration procedures and commodity pool operators – all of which are still being furiously studied by experts.
Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the Solana Policy Institute, highlighted a few points of the bill, including that it would provide “clear regulatory treatment for tokens and tokenized fundraising, establish regulation of exchanges, give financial institutions the green light to use public blockchains, direct federal agencies to create a regulatory pathway for tokenized securities and on-chain futures markets, and, most importantly, establish strong consumer and developer protections.”
Last week, several Democratic senators gathered for a press conference explaining their opposition to the Clarity Act and warning of the crypto industry’s growing influence in Washington.
