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