CLARITY Act failure leaves crypto regulation in limbo as SEC moves on tokenized stocks

Is the new crypto legislation truly dead in the water and what does it mean for the future of tokenized stocks?

The US digital assets industry should treat the Senate’s failure to advance the CLARITY Act as a signal to strengthen governance and compliance frameworks now, rather than wait for Congress to settle the regulatory landscape, according to Maksym Sakharov, co-founder and CEO of financial platform WeFi.co.

‘The biggest signal is that digital assets are increasingly being treated as part of financial infrastructure rather than as a separate technology sector,’ Sakharov tells Governance Intelligence.

His comments come after senators voted 49-50 on September 15 against advancing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, falling short of the 60 votes required to move the legislation forward. The vote was procedural rather than a final rejection of the bill, but it represents a significant setback for efforts to establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets.

The CLARITY Act was intended to establish clearer boundaries between the SEC and CFTC, including by giving the CFTC oversight of digital commodities such as bitcoin while leaving securities-related tokens under the SEC. It also included requirements around crypto exchanges, customer asset segregation and market surveillance.