In July 2026 the US Senate moved closer to advancing the CLARITY Act, the bipartisan market-structure bill that would formally divide oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC. Senator Cynthia Lummis publicly framed the bill as delivering three key benefits: legal clarity for developers, stronger safeguards for investors, and defined jurisdiction for federal regulators.
The legislation is designed to sit alongside the GENIUS Act stablecoin framework passed in 2025, forming what supporters describe as the first coherent US digital-asset rulebook.
What the bill actually does
CLARITY defines when a digital asset is a security versus a commodity, sets disclosure standards for token issuers, and creates a supervised path for exchanges to register as digital-commodity trading venues. Industry groups have called it the most consequential US crypto bill since the Howey framework was first applied to tokens.
Critics counter that the bill's carve-outs are too generous and could weaken existing securities protections. The Senate Banking Committee is expected to hold formal markup in the coming weeks.
Why the timetable keeps slipping
Market-structure legislation forces a jurisdictional settlement between two agencies with different histories and constituencies. Every draft that solves that fight creates a new fight over definitions.
Meanwhile the industry adapts to enforcement precedent rather than statute, which is the worst of both worlds: rules exist, but only in hindsight.
