Press Releases

Today, on the one-year anniversary of the House’s bipartisan passage of H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence, led by Subcommittee Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01), hosted a field hearing at Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City. The hearing examined the CLARITY Act’s role in promoting innovation, protecting consumers, and strengthening America’s leadership in digital assets.

On Regulatory Clarity and Innovation:

Full Committee Chairman French Hill (AR-02) said, "Our leadership in finance and technology depends on clear, predictable rules. That's been at the heart of financial oversight throughout our nation's history. One year ago today, we passed the CLARITY Act and also saw [the] GENIUS [Act] enacted into law. If we want to have the ultimate success in our economy and see the transition of traditional finance on an analog basis to a distributed ledger blockchain basis, the country has to have the rules to make the U.S. the center of that digital ecosystem in the world.”

Subcommittee Chairman Steil said, "Since 2017, the House Committee on Financial Services, alongside our colleagues on the House Committee on Agriculture, has worked to craft a durable framework for digital assets that fosters innovation while protecting consumers and investors. Our goal is clear: replace regulation by enforcement with clear rules of the road for digital assets.”

Rep. William Timmons (SC-04) said, “Well, I think that it's hard to even imagine what the world's going to look like in 20 years, but in order for us to continue to be the center of the global economy and to continue to provide the American dream that people have enjoyed for 250 years, we've got to get this right. And that's the importance of passing [the] CLARITY [Act]..”

Rep. Tim Moore (NC-14) said, “There's inherent risk in certain technologies, but the guidelines and the proposals and the law that's being worked on with respect to, of course, the GENIUS [Act] and with [the] CLARITY [Act] are designed to do that. It's understandable why companies with the failure, particularly the four years before under the Biden administration, were having to look to go offshore. I think it's important that we work hard to bring that stability.”

On American Competitiveness and Economic Opportunity:

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Dan Meuser (PA-09) said, "It's certainly fitting that we're here at Federal Hall. Where capital formation began in our country, and the CLARITY Act is about extending that same opportunity to more Americans, not fewer."

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (IN-03) said, “As we discussed earlier, one year ago today, this House passed the CLARITY Act with one of the strongest bipartisan votes in Congress. It cleared [the] Senate Banking [Committee] two months ago, yet it is still sitting on the Senate calendar. Every witness here today has a story about what delay costs — faster payments, markets open around the clock, and American innovation that flees overseas and business.”

Rep. Mike Haridopolos (FL-08) said, “This financial framework that we're talking about is really what makes America a unique place. Everybody wants to do business here. Unfortunately, the previous administration did not provide that certainty and stability. And thus, the dollars are going elsewhere, jobs are going elsewhere. And it's so important that we do it the right way.”

Witnesses Emphasized the Need for a Clear Digital Asset Market Structure Framework:

Ms. Sarah Aberg, Chief Legal Officer, Nova Labs Inc., said, “The CLARITY Act does not ask for deregulation. It asks for the right regulation, applied by the right regulator, under clear rules that market participants can understand and follow. It distinguishes between digital assets that function as securities and digital commodities that power operational networks, and it assigns oversight accordingly between the SEC and the CFTC. … This Committee has done the work. The CLARITY Act passed the House a year ago. I respectfully urge the Committee to continue its leadership in advancing this legislation to enactment.”

Ms. Randi Abernethy, Head of Clearing and Group Risk, Bullish, said, “Responsible firms faced years of uncertainty about which regulator has jurisdiction, which assets are securities and which are commodities, and what rules apply to trading, custody, and clearing. Innovation and capital migrated to jurisdictions that offered clarity, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. American investors, meanwhile, were left to trade on platforms that were either offshore or operating under a patchwork of state regimes never designed for these markets. The CLARITY Act changes that. By drawing a clear jurisdictional line between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, establishing a framework for the issuance of digital commodities for capital formation under SEC oversight, and giving the CFTC clear authority over centralized, custodial exchanges and intermediaries in the secondary markets for digital commodities, the legislation gives responsible companies exactly what they have been asking for: a rulebook.”

Mr. Ryan Louvar, Chief Legal Officer, WisdomTree, said, “For years, the central source of uncertainty in this industry has been the absence of a clear answer to a basic question: which regulator oversees which activity. The CLARITY Act would answer it. It would preserve the SEC’s authority over securities, including tokenized securities, […] and would provide a clearer federal framework for intermediated digital-commodity spot markets. Those intermediary activities present the classic risks of custody and conduct that have historically warranted supervision. Bringing them within a defined federal regime, with registration, customer-asset protection, recordkeeping, and AML obligations, replaces the current patchwork of case-by-case enforcement with predictable rules of the road. A market cannot function well when its participants cannot tell in advance which agency’s rules apply to them. The CLARITY Act would replace much of that ambiguity with a workable division of labor between the CFTC and the SEC.”

Mr. Jason Somensatto, Director of Policy, Coin Center, said, “Ultimately, regulatory clarity means the imposition of rules that identify who is responsible for what, which risks they create, and which regulator has authority to supervise those risks. The current state of law is not serving consumers, developers, entrepreneurs, or regulators well. Some agencies have attempted to stretch existing authorities to reach conduct that does not fit comfortably within old categories. States have continued to rely on money transmission laws that vary across jurisdictions and were not designed to function as a comprehensive national market structure regime. Meanwhile, serious actors face uncertainty, and less serious actors can exploit confusion. … The CLARITY Act recognizes these principles in several ways. It includes protections designed to ensure that software developers and infrastructure providers are not required to register with the SEC or CFTC simply because they write code, publish software, validate transactions, maintain a protocol, provide a user interface, or otherwise support the functioning of a blockchain network without taking control of customer assets or acting in a trusted capacity as a traditional intermediary.”

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