How crypto custody can evolve as CLARITY Act stays stalled

Washington may be stuck on digital asset legislation, but the financial infrastructure underpinning the sector is continuing to move ahead.

The failure of the CLARITY Act in the US Senate this month was a setback for the digital asset industry. It leaves unanswered some of the central questions around market structure, custody and regulatory jurisdiction. But while lawmakers debate, regulators, banks and financial institutions elsewhere are continuing to build.

Ryan Kirkley, co-founder and chief executive of Global Settlement (GSX), argues that the more important question for markets is what happens when Congress cannot deliver the framework the industry has spent years waiting for.

“The US therefore faces a specific risk,” Kirkley told us last week. “Regulatory clarity arrives piece by piece while the rest of the world legislates and builds.”

US regulators are pushing ahead

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are nevertheless advancing work within their existing mandates. The SEC’s Crypto Task Force is working on custody rules. These could provide investment advisers, broker-dealers and other securities intermediaries with clearer parameters for holding and transacting digital assets.