Nine months ago, Congress passed the GENIUS Act, establishing the first federal regulatory framework for stablecoins. The results have been demonstrative: the stablecoin market grew 49% in 2025 and reached $306 billion by the end of the year. Circle, Ripple and other digital asset companies received provisional national bank charters from the OCC. Institutional capital that had been sitting on the sidelines moved into these markets. Recruiters, who a year earlier described an industry where “every protocol fund was heading to the Caymans [tradingview.com],” now reports that 90% of top searches in crypto leadership are US-based. Clear rules produced exactly what their advocates said they wanted: investment, institutional engagement, and the onshore of activity that had migrated elsewhere.
That result sharpens the task for the Senate Banking Committee: to apply a clear framework to the broader market for digital assets. The crypto market is currently worth $3.2 trillion. Nearly 70 million Americans, one in five, own crypto. This is a significant and growing market.
The GENIUS Act addressed stablecoins. The CLARITY Act sets the rules for everything else: registration and oversight of trading venues and intermediaries, jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC, disclosure and compliance across the token lifecycle, and protection of non-custodial technologies under US law.
These are the ground rules that will determine whether the next generation of financial infrastructure is built here in America – or elsewhere. Within the last 10 years, the number of developers in the United States has decreased by 51%. Almost 90% of global CEX volume is offshore. America needs ground rules because without them the same dynamics that preceded GENIUS would apply to the rest of the market. Trading activity, protocol development, and institutional engagement in digital asset markets will continue to flow toward jurisdictions that have already provided the regulatory clarity Congress has yet to provide. Other jurisdictions, including the EU, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, have already adopted market structure schemes and provide the regulatory clarity that has yet to be provided.
The Senate Banking Committee, along with offices on both sides of the aisle, have spent the better part of two years building toward this moment. Senators Tillis and Alsobrooks deserve credit for resolving the issue of the stablecoin dividend in a bipartisan manner, the most contentious provision in months of negotiations. The compromise significantly expands the scope of the prohibition framework in GENIUS across digital asset market participants. The digital asset industry made significant concessions. The resulting approach is restrictive in several respects – ultimately, the broader and most critical goal remains to promote comprehensive legislation on market structures, and this agreement moves that process forward.
Nothing in this process is perfect, and legislation is complex, but it is a result achieved through the kind of sustained bipartisan engagement that serious legislation requires. Chairman Scott has steered a difficult process across deep divisions between the banking industry and the digital asset sector, and the committee is closer to a sustainable outcome than it has been at any point in that process.
The window to act is narrow. The legislative calendar provides limited time to advance a bill of this scope through committee, floor consideration, and final review. A near-term markup is needed to keep this effort on track and ensure a viable path to the president’s desk before the end of the year.
The CLARITY Act passed the House by 294 votes. This breadth of bipartisan support reflects true congressional judgment that clear regulation of digital asset markets serves the public interest. The banking committee should schedule a markup as soon as possible. The rationale for moving forward has never been stronger.
The US should finally establish the clear, durable, fit-for-purpose framework this market – and this country – needs. America has long led the world because it has embraced innovation, markets and the rule of law. Now is the time to do it again.
