Nine months ago, Congress passed the GENIUS Act, establishing the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The results have been demonstrative: the stablecoin market grew by 49% in 2025, reaching $306 billion at the end of the year. Circle, Ripple and other digital asset companies received interim national banking charters from the OCC. Institutional capital that had been on the sidelines moved into these markets. The recruiters, who a year earlier described an industry in which “every protocol foundation was bailing out the Cayman Islands [tradingview.com],” now report that 90% of senior crypto leadership searches are in the US. The clear rules produced exactly what their proponents said they would do: investment, institutional commitment, and offshoring activities that had been migrating elsewhere.
That result sharpens the task before the Senate Banking Committee: applying a clear framework to the digital asset market in general. The cryptocurrency market is currently worth $3.2 trillion. Nearly 70 million Americans, one in five, own cryptocurrencies. This is an important and growing market.
The GENIUS Act addressed payment stablecoins. The CLARITY Act sets the rules for everything else: registration and oversight of trading venues and brokers, jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC, disclosure and compliance throughout the token lifecycle, and the protection of non-custodial technologies under US law.
These are the fundamental rules that determine whether the next generation of financial infrastructure will be built here in the United States – or elsewhere. In the last 10 years, the number of developers in the US fell 51%. Almost 90% of global CEX volume is done overseas. The United States needs fundamental rules because without them, the same dynamics that preceded GENIUS would apply to the rest of the market. Trading activity, protocol development, and institutional participation in digital asset markets will continue to flow to jurisdictions that have already provided the regulatory clarity that Congress has not yet provided. Other jurisdictions, including the EU, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, have already enacted market structure regimes and are providing regulatory clarity that has not yet been achieved.
The Senate Banking Committee, along with offices on both sides of the aisle, has spent the better part of two years building toward this moment. Senators Tillis and Alsobrooks deserve credit for resolving the stablecoin performance issue in a bipartisan manner, the most controversial provision in months of negotiations. The compromise substantially expands the scope of the prohibition framework in GENIUS among digital asset market participants. The digital asset industry made major concessions. The resulting approach is restrictive in several respects; Ultimately, the broader and more critical objective remains to promote comprehensive market structure legislation, and this agreement advances that process.
Nothing is perfect in this process and legislating is complex, but it is a result that is achieved through the kind of sustained bipartisan commitment that serious legislation requires. Chairman Scott has managed a difficult process through deep disagreements between the banking industry and the digital asset sector, and the Committee is closer to a lasting outcome than at any time in that process.
The window to act is narrow. The legislative calendar leaves limited time for a bill of this scope to make it through committee, floor consideration, and final approval. A near-term profit margin is necessary to keep this effort going and ensure there is a viable path to the President’s desk before the end of the year.
The CLARITY Act passed the House with 294 votes. That breadth of bipartisan support reflects a genuine congressional judgment that clear rules for digital asset markets serve the public interest. The Banking Committee should schedule a markup as soon as possible. The case for moving forward has never been stronger.
The United States should finally establish the clear, lasting and adequate framework that this market – and this country – needs. The United States has long led the world because it has embraced innovation, markets, and the rule of law. Now is the time to do it again.
