NJ senators must back this bill to make cryptocurrency safer | Opinion

Aug. 19, 2026, 4:04 a.m. ET

Right now, a New Jersey resident who loses money on a digital asset platform has no reliable answer to the simplest question a consumer can ask: Who do I call?

I use cryptocurrency the way a lot of people use a checking account, to save and to send money to family. For New Jersey residents helping support parents in Colombia, the Dominican Republic or the Philippines, the difference between a bank wire and a digital transfer isn't abstract. It shows up as fewer days waiting and less money lost to fees. I've also watched what digital assets can do for people who have spent their lives on the wrong side of a bad credit decision, people a bank branch never took seriously, who finally have a way to save and move money on their own terms.

That is why the Senate’s current delay in passing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is indefensible.

Op-ed continues after gallery.

Crypto users and digital asset developers have gone years without a clear legal and regulatory framework in place. They’re operating under rules written for a different century that are enforced inconsistently. This status quo means the large majority of honest actors pay the highest price for ambiguity because they’re the ones who bother attempting to comply.