Atkins Says CLARITY Act Can Give Crypto A Legal Foundation

SEC Chair Paul Atkins says he has confidence that Congress will adopt the CLARITY Act and that President Donald Trump will be able to sign it, giving U.S. regulators a statutory basis for digital asset oversight.

The comments put fresh pressure on the Senate as lawmakers work through crypto market structure legislation that would divide authority between the SEC and CFTC. Atkins said the SEC has already worked with the CFTC on interpretive steps to separate tokenized securities from digital commodities, but a law passed by Congress would give regulators a firmer foundation than agency guidance alone.

Atkins has been pushing the same direction for months. In March, he said only Congress can future-proof digital asset regulation through comprehensive market structure legislation and that SEC rulemaking would draw heavily from work around the CLARITY Act. In February, he told lawmakers that the SEC would be ready to implement the bill after passage.

Bill Would Split SEC And CFTC Roles

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is designed to create a federal framework for crypto markets by defining digital commodities, mature blockchain systems, registration paths, trading requirements, customer-asset protections, and the line between SEC and CFTC oversight.

The House passed H.R. 3633 on July 17, 2025, by a 294-134 vote. Congress.gov currently lists the bill as passed by the House and referred to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.

That Senate stage is where the market focus now sits. CryptoAdventure previously covered how Trump-aligned officials rallied behind the CLARITY Act as pressure built for lawmakers to finish market structure legislation. The bill has also been slowed by fights over stablecoin rewards, banking-sector objections, and how much room crypto firms should have to offer yield-like incentives.

Market Structure Fight Moves Beyond Enforcement

Atkins’ remarks land after years of uncertainty over whether many crypto assets should be treated as securities, commodities, payment instruments, collectibles, or utility tokens. The SEC has already started moving away from enforcement-first policy through token-taxonomy work, interpretive releases, and its wider Project Crypto agenda.

That shift was visible in Atkins’ recent push for an onchain crypto rule overhaul, where he outlined potential changes for trading systems, broker-dealers, clearing, settlement, custody, and tokenized markets. Those agency actions can give firms interim guidance, but a statute would be harder for future regulators to reverse.

The CLARITY Act would also affect the CFTC’s role in digital commodities. CFTC Chair Michael Selig has already pushed for rules that protect crypto ownership and self-custody, while giving the agency a clearer mandate over commodity-style digital asset markets. That policy lane became more visible in recent coverage of the CFTC’s push to protect Bitcoin ownership from government seizure.

Stablecoin Yield Still Shapes The Senate Fight

The remaining Senate battle is not only about which agency regulates which assets. Stablecoin incentives have become one of the hardest pressure points because banks fear that yield-like rewards could pull deposits away from traditional accounts.

That fight has already delayed parts of the market structure package. Galaxy’s model challenging the banking industry’s warning over stablecoin yield added another layer to the debate, arguing that regulated stablecoin growth could expand U.S. credit and Treasury demand rather than simply draining bank deposits. The issue remains central as lawmakers decide how tightly to restrict rewards linked to digital dollars.

Atkins’ confidence gives the bill another public boost, but the legislative path still depends on Senate negotiations, final text, and whether lawmakers can settle the remaining banking and crypto-sector disputes. If the CLARITY Act clears the Senate and reaches Trump’s desk, U.S. crypto markets would move from agency-by-agency interpretation toward a formal legal structure for digital commodities, tokenized securities, exchange registration, custody, disclosures, and market oversight.

The post Atkins Says CLARITY Act Can Give Crypto A Legal Foundation appeared first on Crypto Adventure.