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The CLARITY Act proposes a federal framework for U.S. crypto markets: it would define how the SEC and CFTC divide oversight, create registration regimes for certain digital-asset intermediaries, and set related disclosure and customer-protection requirements. It is not law. The Senate failed to advance the measure in a 49–50 procedural vote on September 15, 2026, according to the Associated Press.
What is the CLARITY Act?
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, H.R. 3633, is proposed legislation intended to establish a federal market-structure framework for digital assets. Its central idea is to distinguish digital commodities from securities-related activity and assign oversight accordingly. The House-reported text is available from the Government Publishing Office; the House committee report explains the proposal’s intended division of responsibilities.
The House Financial Services Committee described its proposal as establishing “clear lines between the SEC and CFTC” in its July 10, 2025 explainer. That is the committee’s characterization; the bill’s definitions, agency rulemaking, and implementation would determine how clearly particular assets and activities were treated.
How would it change SEC and CFTC oversight?
The House-reported bill would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) a larger role in overseeing digital commodity markets, while preserving the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) role where securities law applies. The House report says the proposal would clarify SEC jurisdiction over investment contracts involving digital commodities and address secondary-market trading of digital commodities initially offered as part of an investment contract.
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In practical terms, the proposal is not a blanket rule that every cryptocurrency becomes a commodity or that the CFTC takes over all crypto regulation. The statutory categories and the nature of a particular offering or transaction would matter. Securities and activity that remain subject to securities laws would still be treated separately.
What rules would apply to platforms and other intermediaries?
Registration for digital commodity businesses
The House-reported text establishes registration frameworks for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers, including provisional registration. It also provides for SEC-facing requirements for certain trading venues and securities-market participants. The proposal therefore creates multiple regulatory pathways rather than one registration category for every crypto business. The precise obligations would depend on the entity’s activities and the applicable statutory definitions.
Customer protections and custody
The bill includes customer-protection requirements for registered entities, custody provisions, and rules for CFTC intermediaries. Those requirements would impose duties on covered market participants; registration would not guarantee that customers avoid losses or that an asset retains its value. The House-reported text and committee report describe the proposed framework in the bill and report.
What would change for token offers, developers, and DeFi?
Offers and disclosures
The House bill contains a title on offers and sales of digital commodities, including provisions addressing investment-contract assets and specified exemptions. The House committee summary says developers would have to provide accurate, relevant information about project operation and ownership. This would be a proposed disclosure regime, not an identical set of requirements for every token, project, or issuer.
Developers and decentralized finance
The House-reported text includes provisions concerning non-controlling blockchain developers and decentralized-finance activity, as well as studies of DeFi and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The bill’s treatment would depend on its language and any implementing rules; it should not be read as a general exemption for anyone who describes an activity as decentralized.
How does the Senate draft differ from the House bill?
The versions should not be conflated. The House-reported bill is the text reported by the House. On September 14, 2026, Senators Cynthia Lummis, John Boozman, and Tim Scott announced a separate Senate final draft, which they said they would offer as a substitute amendment if the motion to proceed succeeded. Their announcement is a sponsor summary, not a substitute for the full draft’s statutory language.
| Issue | House-reported H.R. 3633 | Senate draft announced September 14, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Agency roles and market structure | Would allocate roles between the CFTC and SEC, including CFTC oversight of digital commodities and SEC jurisdiction over securities-related activity. House Report 119-168, Part 2 | The sponsors announced a final draft, but their release does not establish the full draft’s detailed statutory treatment of each category. Senate sponsors’ announcement |
| Developers, DeFi, and conflicts | Contains provisions concerning non-controlling developers and DeFi, plus studies of DeFi and NFTs. House-reported bill text | Sponsors said the draft revised developer protections and added provisions addressing affiliate trading and conflicts of interest. Senate sponsors’ announcement |
| Other provisions highlighted | The cited House materials describe disclosure, registration, custody, and customer-protection provisions; they do not establish the Senate draft’s treatment of the additional topics listed here. | Sponsors highlighted new ethics language and Treasury authority aimed at preventing deposit flight associated with payment stablecoins. They characterized the draft as containing 126 substantive changes requested by Democrats. Senate sponsors’ announcement |
The Senate sponsors’ count of 126 changes is their own description of the draft, not an independent measure of its scope or effect.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is the bill’s status?
On September 15, 2026, the Senate failed to advance the measure in a 49–50 procedural vote, as reported by the Associated Press. The vote did not enact the bill. The Senate draft announced the day before was not identical to the House-reported text, and the sponsors’ announcement described what they intended to offer rather than an enacted law.
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What would still depend on rulemaking?
The House proposal delegates significant implementation detail to the SEC and CFTC and includes implementation provisions. If enacted, the practical effect would depend on the final statutory definitions, agency rules, available registration pathways, and effective dates. The bill would set out a framework, but it would not instantly resolve every boundary question or immediately determine the treatment of every asset and business.
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