#Gate广场五月交易分享 #CLARITY法案下周审议 After the Genius Act, what should the Clarity Act focus on?
Moving from the margins to the center, ultimately under the spotlight.
Crypto Week triple hit, the Genius Act specifically regulates stablecoins, has become law, while the Anti-CBDC Act and CLARITY Act are still in the legislative process.
Unlike the Genius Act, the CLARITY Act targets the fundamental definitions and authority distribution of cryptocurrencies, especially public chains, DeFi, token issuance, as well as the powers and responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC, and is closely linked to the FIT21 Act of 2024.
Based on this, the U.S. has built a comprehensive regulatory framework derived from past practices; understanding history is key to clarifying the future.
Financial liberalization, the Wild West of the new era.
Minting rights and inflation, the Fed maintains the former in the name of controlling the latter, while Trump relinquished the latter in the name of expanding the former.
The Genius Act ushered in an era of free stablecoins, with Powell’s insistence on independent minting rights being divided and allocated to Silicon Valley elites and Wall Street old money, but that’s not enough. Peter Thiel seeks absolute freedom for libertarians.
In 2008, the financial crisis made derivatives the target of criticism. Obama urgently needed experts to help regulate the $35 trillion futures market and the $400 trillion swap market. Thus, Gary Gensler was nominated as CFTC Chairman, and in 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was enacted, bringing derivatives into the existing regulatory system. Gary claimed, “We must tame the Wild West,” marking his first regulatory victory over the market.
History is cyclical. In 2021, Obama’s ally, then-President Biden, re-nominated Gary Gensler as SEC Chairman, attempting to cycle into a new frontier—cryptocurrency.
There are two focal points:
1. The SEC has no dispute that BTC/ETH are commodities, but considers other tokens and IXOs as illegal securities offerings, including SOL and Ripple;
2. Regarding high leverage behavior on exchanges, Gary believes this is “inducing” users, and has launched special regulatory actions against onshore and offshore platforms like Coinb and bm. However, a flaw in the plan, Gary was ultimately defeated by the ETF product, which seemed not to be a regulatory focus. In 2021, the SEC approved Bitcoin futures ETFs, but remained tight-lipped on spot ETFs proposed by Grayscale and others. But unfortunately or fortunately, after losing the Ripple IXO case in 2024, the SEC finally approved a Bitcoin spot ETF, allowing MicroStrategy to openly play the crypto-stock-bond cycle.
This time, cryptocurrencies represent a more wild side, conquering the SEC, CFTC, White House, Congress, the Federal Reserve, and Wall Street. An unguarded era has arrived. A footnote: SBF, by donating tens of millions of campaign funds to Biden, successfully sent himself to prison in 2022, which may be a key reason why Gary has taken a strict stance on the crypto industry.
Clarity Act, giving crypto a proper name from now on.
Trump, ever grateful, has made the crypto industry legitimate and transparent.
By 2025, as a relic of two Democratic presidents, Trump, upon taking office, chose to fire Gary and appointed Paul Atkins, who had been friendly since 2016, as his successor, beginning a period of complete laissez-faire. The CLARITY Act was proposed against this backdrop. However, it’s important to note that the CLARITY Act is still in the legislative process, having completed the House procedures and awaiting Senate review. The Senate also has its own “Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act,” but under the Republican-led agenda, crypto-friendliness is inevitable.
The current CLARITY Act targets frameworks for digital commodities, digital assets, and stablecoins. It primarily limits stablecoins to payment forms, with digital commodities managed by the CFTC and digital assets overseen by the SEC.
1. The CFTC’s victory: clarifies ETH and CFTC status, blurs the boundary between SEC and asset issuance. ETH is a commodity; truly decentralized public chain tokens are commodities, with trading under CFTC jurisdiction. IXOs, SAFTs, and other financing still fall under SEC regulation, but with a $75 million exemption, tokens issued can become decentralized within four years to avoid penalties.
2. Digital commodities are digital in form but commodities in content. As technology advances, the binary distinction between “physical goods” and “virtual assets” is being relaxed. Recognizing digital commodities’ existence, as long as they have practical value for public chain, DeFi, or DAO protocol operation, they are no longer securities. But! NFTs must be assets, not commodities, because they are unique and only have “speculation” or appreciation value, and cannot serve as a universal medium of exchange like currency. Additionally, earning, rewards, and profit-sharing must be valuable for maintaining protocol decentralization; otherwise, they fall under SEC regulation. This definition remains abstract; fundamentally, the CLARITY Act distinguishes between token issuance and token operation:
• IXO issuance is a security; if token issuance meets certain conditions, it is not.
• Airdrop points are securities; if airdropped tokens meet certain conditions, they are not.
• Exchange distribution is not a security, but promised yields are securities. Meeting conditions refers to the definition and basis of digital commodities, and promising future decentralization and trading without intermediaries. However, participation in projects itself is an investment; if expecting returns, it’s an asset issuance.
The future definition remains unclear, but many past cases provide reference points:
• ETH is a digital commodity, but financing projects via SAFT is a digital asset issuance, regulated by the SEC. If it becomes fully decentralized in the future, it will be a digital commodity managed by the CFTC.
• Native staking of ETH is also a commodity, as it maintains the PoS feature of the blockchain. But whether third-party DeFi staking tokens qualify as commodities is uncertain—Lido’s case is debatable, EigenLayer might lean more toward commodities, requiring clear regulations.
• Ethereum is a blockchain, but many L1/L2 projects issued via SAFT or IXO, aiming for decentralization within four years, with no single central control token or voting share exceeding 20%. Current foundations or DAOs may not be exempt; analyzing token holdings is necessary. The CLARITY Act is very detailed, establishing joint SEC and CFTC regulation, balancing the different characteristics of virtual securities and physical commodities. Both agencies need to work together.
In conclusion, the CLARITY Act is a key part of U.S. crypto regulation, defining core issues like tokens and public chains, clarifying the definition of digital commodities. The remaining assets include NFTs, stablecoins, and tokenized assets (RWA). However, DeFi operations still fall into a gray area. Although the Act has amended the Securities Law’s definitions, DeFi is too important. Like securities law, the crypto market needs a dedicated DeFi Act, separate from stablecoins, public chains, and tokens.
This is not overreaching. In the ongoing U.S. crypto regulatory framework, the Tornado Cash case is still unresolved. The fate of co-founder Roman Storm may become a litmus test for judicial and legislative pressure.
