Clarity Act's Senate failure hands crypto rulebook to SEC and CFTC

CoinDesk reported on Oct. 11 that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act's failure to advance in the Senate moved the next phase of U.S. crypto regulation to the SEC and CFTC.

The gap those actions leave is ordinary, unleveraged spot trading, which still lacks comprehensive federal oversight beyond the CFTC's anti-fraud and anti-manipulation powers, according to CoinDesk. Closing that gap was a central goal of Clarity.

"A coalition that looked unified against Gensler found out definitions create winners and losers," Lev Breydo, an assistant professor of law at William & Mary Law School, told CoinDesk. He said the bill exposed divisions within the industry, from ethics provisions to the yield fight with community banks.

Breydo expects the SEC to spend 2027 completing offering and custody rules and building on the tokenized-stock exemption. He points to the agencies' March joint interpretive release as an important foundation — one that supersedes earlier guidance and allows coordination within existing law.

Paul McCaffery, head of digital assets at investment bank KBW, told CoinDesk the SEC and CFTC "are already moving proactively to provide the regulatory certainty markets need." He said this is "unlocking a wave of M&A across digital assets, traditional financial services, and fintech alike."

Matt Hougan, Bitwise's chief investment officer, said he sees the agency approach as more favorable in the short term than legislation that would have required years of follow-up rulemaking.

CoinDesk's sources disagree on durability: an exemption or an interpretive release can be revisited by a later commission in a way a statute cannot.

For advisers and funds, the nearest-term items are custody and leverage. The SEC's custody proposal and the CFTC's comment docket cover where client crypto can sit and how retail leverage is offered, while unleveraged spot markets remain outside both.