Bitwise Sees 4 Winners After CLARITY Act Fails
According to Bitwise, SEC decisions after the CLARITY Act failed sped up clarity for stablecoins, exchanges, and tokenization, with Coinbase, Securitize, and NEAR as possible winners.
Key Takeaways
- Matt Hougan calls stablecoins, crypto exchanges, tokenization platforms, and buyback tokens the four winners from the CLARITY Act failing.
- The Senate rejected the CLARITY Act on September 15, after which regulators moved faster to provide clarity on stablecoins, tokenized stocks, and buyback tokens.
- Hougan sees Coinbase, Securitize, and NEAR Protocol as examples of companies benefiting from the new regulatory direction.
Bitwise executive Matt Hougan says stablecoins, crypto exchanges, tokenization platforms, and buyback tokens are the four winners from the CLARITY Act failing in the United States. In his view, the crypto market ultimately benefited from the bill stalling in the Senate, because regulators started moving faster afterward than the bill itself would have done.
Stablecoins and Exchanges Benefit
The CLARITY Act failed to win a majority in the Senate on September 15. The vote ended 49 to 50, while 60 votes were needed to move forward. The proposal would have banned platforms from paying out stablecoin yield, with fines of up to $5 million (€4.4 million) per violation. Without that law, the 2025 GENIUS Act remains in force, and it only bans issuers from paying interest.
Hougan sees Coinbase as a clear winner because it uses stablecoin rewards to attract customers. He also says the outlook for exchanges remains strong. The law could have introduced a national spot license, making it easier for big traditional finance firms to get involved. Now Coinbase and Kraken still rely on their network of state licenses. The law would also have limited combining exchange and broker services, a model that matters a lot for many crypto companies.
Tokenization Gets a Faster Answer
Hougan also sees an upside in tokenization. Two days after the vote, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a five-year exemption for tokenized U.S. stocks. The CLARITY Act would only have told the regulator to study tokenized securities, something Hougan says could have taken years. He points to Securitize, the transfer agent behind BlackRock's BUIDL fund, as the main company that could benefit from this.
The broader trend is that regulators are now giving faster clarity on new crypto parts. That may matter for European readers too, because rules around tokenization and stablecoins are increasingly being shaped by regulators instead of one big law. In the U.S., that shift already picked up speed when the SEC opened the door for tokenized stocks on blockchain.
Buyback Tokens Get More Room
A third point is the recent SEC guidance from September 25. It says that a buyback announcement on a functional network is not, by itself, an investment contract. Hougan calls that a good example of why the CLARITY Act failing still turned out positive in his view: crypto gave up some long-term certainty, but it got workable rules back faster.
He points to NEAR Protocol, one of the buyback tokens he mentions. Since the vote, the NEAR token has risen 126.62%. Bitcoin rose 10.39% over the same period, and Ethereum gained 6.86%. Hougan does warn, though, that these gains are mainly based on regulator decisions, and that a new administration or a new Congress could later change course again.
