SEC and CFTC bypass Congress to open crypto access after CLARITY fails – with a catch

Two days after the US Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, federal regulators opened two narrower routes for crypto-linked market access under existing law.

The Securities and Exchange Commission created a five-year path for permissioned venues to trade tokenized US stocks through automated market makers. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission broadened staff no-action relief so qualifying software providers can connect users to regulated derivatives markets without registering as introducing brokers for the covered activity.

The actions can support real products, but they do not recreate market-structure legislation. The SEC route is capped and conditional. The CFTC route still relies on registered derivatives firms for onboarding, trading and custody, and it rests on a staff position that can change.

The SEC turns existing authority into a five-year test

The timing was direct. On Sept. 15, senators voted 49-50 against cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, according to the official roll call. That was a procedural failure to advance the CLARITY Act, not a final vote on the bill's merits.

On Sept. 17, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins connected the congressional setback to the Commission's next move. In a statement accompanying the Innovation Exemption, Atkins said the agency was acting within its existing statutory authority. He also characterized the exemption as a bridge that should be followed by durable rulemaking.