Giancarlo Lowers Expectations for the CLARITY Act
Giancarlo says the CLARITY Act matters, but it is not the only thing driving crypto forward. In the Senate, fights over SEC and CFTC authority and stablecoin rules are still slowing the bill down.
Key Takeaways
- Chris Giancarlo says the crypto industry should not treat the CLARITY Act as the deciding factor for crypto’s future.
- He says innovation will keep moving, even if the Senate does not get to the bill in time.
- The bill is meant to clarify the split between the SEC and CFTC, but it is getting bogged down by other oversight debates in the Senate.
Chris Giancarlo, the former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, says the crypto industry should not act like the CLARITY Act is the only thing standing between it and the future. He argues that the technology will keep advancing even if the bill misses its window in the Senate. Giancarlo still wants the legislation to pass, but he says the industry has leaned too heavily on one bill in its public messaging.
The Bill Is Stuck in the Senate
The calendar is making the situation even tighter. The House of Representatives passed H.R. 3633 on July 17, 2025, by a vote of 294 to 134, and the Senate Banking Committee later moved the bill forward on May 14, 2026, by a vote of 15 to 9. Since then, the full Senate has not taken it up, and the Senate goes into recess on August 10 until September 11. That leaves only about a week for any action before the break.
In a recent interview, Giancarlo compared the situation to the internet. He said there was never one single law that gave the internet permission to exist, yet development kept moving forward anyway. His point is that innovation does not stop if the CLARITY Act stalls. That is also why some market participants see the bill as an important step in the U.S. crypto debate, but not the final word.
More Than Just Market Structure
The CLARITY Act is not just a narrow market structure bill. In the United States, it is supposed to define more clearly how the SEC and the CFTC divide responsibility over digital assets, which makes it a major piece of the broader crypto regulatory picture. In the Senate, arguments over stablecoin yield provisions and other oversight issues are adding more friction.
Giancarlo’s support for the bill is also personal. Section 503 preserves LabCFTC, the fintech office he helped create in 2017. At the same time, he warns that new legislation could also mean more oversight and surveillance. He points to the GENIUS Act as an example of how stablecoin issuers are already covered under the Bank Secrecy Act, and says the CLARITY Act would take a similar approach to digital asset transactions.
Why This Matters
For European crypto readers, the bigger takeaway is that the U.S. regulatory picture is still unsettled, even after a bill clears one chamber. That matters because the CLARITY Act is about more than market structure. It also shapes how authority is split between regulators and how innovation and compliance are expected to coexist in the industry. That could be especially relevant for firms operating on both sides of the Atlantic.
