The CLARITY Act, being pushed forward by the U.S. Congress, is attempting to address a core issue that has plagued the crypto industry for years: whether digital assets should be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The article indicates that the bill has already passed bipartisan support in the House of Representatives in July 2025 and will pass a key Senate committee review in May 2026.
The regulatory jurisdiction has been unclear for a long time.
For a long time, the regulatory boundaries for crypto assets in the United States have been unclear. The SEC tends to classify most tokens as securities and advances regulation based on enforcement actions; the CFTC, on the other hand, considers Bitcoin and some tokens to be commodities. This dual approach has left project teams, trading platforms, and developers in a state of uncertainty for a long time, and has also driven some companies to shift their business to overseas markets with clearer regulations.
The bill proposes to manage in three categories.
The core of the CLARITY Act is to include digital assets in three statutory categories, each corresponding to a different regulatory framework.
- Digital goods: regulated by the CFTC
- Investment contract assets: regulated by the SEC
- Permissioned payment stablecoins: applicable to a separate framework
According to this design, digital goods mainly refer to network tokens that are highly decentralized, have practical uses, and are not controlled by a single entity; Bitcoin is considered the most typical example. Tokens that are more akin to financing tools are still subject to the information disclosure and investor protection requirements under securities laws.
Tokens can be converted as the network matures.
A more noteworthy design element of the bill is that it allows tokens to change their regulatory classification as the project develops. The article states that many crypto projects are more like securities in their early stages because they are led by centralized teams, and investors primarily bet on the team's execution capabilities; however, as the network becomes more decentralized and tokens begin to take on real-world functions, their attributes may become closer to commodities.
This means that some tokens may initially be subject to SEC regulation, but can be transferred to CFTC regulation after meeting the decentralization and utility standards set by the legislation. This arrangement aims to separate early-stage project financing from later-stage network operation, preventing the same asset from being subject to the same regulatory logic at different stages.
Customer fund segregation is written into the requirements
In addition to the division of regulatory responsibilities, the bill also includes compliance requirements for platforms and market participants, with a focus on mitigating issues exposed in past industry risk events. The article mentions that these requirements include customer fund segregation, conflict of interest disclosure, and a range of compliance standards.
Judging from its progress, this bill is closer to being implemented than most previous US crypto market structure bills. If it completes the Senate and President's signing process, the US crypto industry's long-standing reliance on law enforcement and litigation to define its boundaries may shift towards a more clearly defined legal framework.
