Regulators sprint after Clarity Act stalls, with SEC and CFTC stepping in

What happened after the Clarity Act hit a wall

The Clarity Act, pitched as a broad framework for digital assets, failed to move forward in the Senate. Two days later, the Securities and Exchange Commission used existing powers to add to its crypto rulebook. The commission issued an order that temporarily allows trading in certain tokenized stocks, a small but meaningful step toward markets that never sleep.

On that very day, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sent a package of proposed crypto rules to the White House for review. Details stayed under wraps, but a notice from the Office of Management and Budget confirmed the proposal is currently under review.

When CNBC asked about next steps, an SEC representative said the commission will consider a proposal to "modernize the rules around custody of investment adviser client assets and fund assets, including to address crypto assets."

Industry and lawmakers react

Crypto firms had championed the Clarity Act and still want clearer guardrails. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, a leading voice urging Congress to act, told CNBC after a procedural setback in the Senate on Sept. 15: "At this point, I don't think we can wait on Congress and the Senate." Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., likewise pressed federal agencies to set "clear rules of the road" until lawmakers get a bill across the finish line.

Summer Mersinger, who leads the Blockchain Association and previously served as a CFTC commissioner, put it bluntly: "When you're thinking about traditional finance entering in and using some of this technology, they're being held back right now because there is this regulatory uncertainty." She added, "Having the regulators provide some sort of certainty is going to really open up the industry to more investment, more integration into traditional finance, and really grow the sector."

Politics are intruding too. With the midterm election now front and center, Congress has not fully shelved the bill. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., switched his vote to oppose the measure, a procedural move that lets him call for another vote to reconsider it.

States push back, experts weigh in

States are angling for a bigger say. "We write to urge the Senate to expressly preserve the police powers of the states and ensure that the states remain armed with the tools necessary to protect the American people from predatory scammers," they told Sen. Tim Scott and the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Aaron Klein, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who previously served as a top staffer for the Senate Banking Committee, told CNBC he sees capital market oversight as a federal job. "Capital market regulation, I think, needs to be done at the federal level," he said, while noting that "in terms of stopping fraud and scams, states have a lot of authority." In the absence of a national crypto framework, he said states should step up oversight of payment processing and pursue bad actors more aggressively.

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Mersinger countered that state action often comes only after damage is done. What is needed, she said, is federal oversight that reduces the odds of those cases in the first place.

What federal agencies are doing instead

Asked how it plans to police crypto, the CFTC pointed CNBC to a Sept. 16 statement from Chair Michael Selig: "President Trump promised to deliver a future-proof crypto asset regulatory market structure one way or the other, and we will help him get the job done using our existing statutory authorities."

Caroline Pham - acting CFTC chair from day one of President Donald Trump's second term through December, and now CEO of MoonPay Institutional as well as MoonPay's chief legal officer, and the company's chief administrative officer - said the agencies always had a backup plan. "A plan B to move forward at the agency level was always in the cards," she told CNBC. "You have to have a contingency plan."

She noted the SEC and CFTC have been working since the start of Trump's second term on coordinated efforts, including "Project Crypto," unveiled in July 2025 to modernize securities rules and align the agencies' approaches. Pham said in August 2025 that the CFTC would start carrying out recommendations from the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.

What this means for your portfolio

The center of gravity is shifting from Congress to the regulators and the states. For now, the most tangible movement is coming from agency actions - the SEC's temporary path for trading certain tokenized stocks and the CFTC's proposal now sitting with OMB - rather than a single sweeping law. The fine print and timing are still uncertain given the undisclosed CFTC draft and differing agency priorities, so expect the rules to evolve in fits and starts.

If you hold crypto or track the space, the takeaway is simple: watch the agencies and the states as closely as the Hill. That is where the near term changes are likely to show up first.

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