Crypto market‑structure push resurfaces

For years, a crypto company in the United States could build a trading product and still not know which cop would show up first: the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A bill called the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 is back at the center of Washington because it tries to draw that line in statute instead of leaving it to lawsuits and speeches. (congress.gov, sec.gov) The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on May 29, 2025 as H.R. 3633 by Representative French Hill, and Congress.gov says it would create a federal framework for “digital commodities” built on blockchain networks. Its basic move is to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the main job over digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers, while keeping the Securities and Exchange Commission involved where securities markets and alternative trading systems are still in play. (congress.gov, congress.gov) That split is the whole fight in one sentence: one agency usually polices commodities like wheat and oil, and the other polices investment contracts and stock markets. Crypto has spent a decade sitting awkwardly between those buckets, which is why the same token could look like a software product to one lawyer and an unregistered security to another. (sec.gov, congress.gov) The Clarity Act tries to sort that out with a “mature blockchain” and “decentralized control” test. Congress.gov says a token could trade as a digital commodity if its network is sufficiently decentralized, or if the issuer keeps filing reports while the network is still on the way there. (congress.gov, congress.gov) The bill is not a free pass. The House summary says it adds trade monitoring, recordkeeping, customer-asset rules, and a provisional registration system so firms can operate while the new regime is being built. (congress.gov, financialservices.house.gov) This returned to the front burner after the House moved first and the Senate started building its own version. The Senate Banking Committee said on August 5, 2025 that Chairman Tim Scott, Senator Cynthia Lummis, Senator Bill Hagerty, and Senator Bernie Moreno released a market-structure discussion draft that “builds on” the Clarity Act after the House passed it the week before. (banking.senate.gov, congress.gov) By January 13, 2026, Senate Banking Committee Republicans were publishing a fact sheet arguing the bill would pair innovation with investor protections and law-enforcement tools. That date matters because it shows this is no longer just a House committee project; it is now a Senate priority with its own messaging, markup process, and pressure campaign. (banking.senate.gov) Paul Atkins has been reinforcing that push from the regulator’s side. In a March 17, 2026 speech on the Securities and Exchange Commission website, Atkins said the agency was implementing a token taxonomy and an interpretation of the Howey investment-contract test, and he said that framework would draw heavily from congressional work, “particularly the CLARITY Act.” (sec.gov) A week later, on March 24, 2026, Atkins said the commission had published that taxonomy and interpretation to answer the question of when a crypto asset falls under federal securities law. On January 29, 2026, he also described a joint Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission harmonization event, which is Washington’s way of saying the two agencies are trying to stop tripping over each other in public. (sec.gov, sec.gov) For fintech firms and trading platforms, the practical question is timing. If Congress writes the lane lines into law and the agencies start aligning their rulebooks around them, firms that avoided token listings, custody, or broker services because of enforcement risk could get a clearer compliance window for launching products inside a named federal regime. That is an inference from the bill text, the Senate’s draft process, and Atkins’ speeches, not a guarantee that any specific product will be approved. (congress.gov, banking.senate.gov, sec.gov) The harder part is that writing a map does not end the border disputes. The bill still leaves regulators to define ideas like decentralization, maturity, reporting thresholds, and exchange obligations in real-world cases, which means the next phase is likely to be fought in rulemakings, comment letters, and licensing queues rather than only in court. (congress.gov, financialservices.house.gov)