Topic
U.S. congressional effort to set crypto market rules, chiefly the CLARITY Act, dividing oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC.
Former CFTC acting chair Caroline Pham says the Commodity Exchange Act already gives the agency extensive crypto authority after its October 5 proposal. The CLARITY Act failed to advance in September, so regulators are left with existing powers while lawmakers weigh more legislation.
Reality
Andrew Cuomo urged the crypto industry to fund both parties, saying the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate cannot pass without Democrats. Crypto PACs have spent $54.3 million backing Republicans and $26.2 million backing Democrats, Cointelegraph reported, while Kalshi gives Democrats about a 61% chance of winning both chambers.
Reality
French Hill, the House Financial Services chair, says SEC and CFTC crypto rules fall short of the CLARITY Act the Senate blocked 49-50 last month. His case is that a later administration can rewrite rules issued under existing agency authority, while a statute would hold.
Perspective Coverage
5 publishersReality
A bill that began as a security-or-commodity question now includes a standby power over stablecoin rewards if community banks start losing deposits. The Treasury secretary decides when it fires.
Perspective Coverage
11 publishersReality
Fairshake and the Winklevoss-backed Digital Freedom Fund have put $33 million into Ohio against Sherrod Brown three weeks before the election. The target lets the industry settle a 2024 score while leaving alone the Democratic senators a market-structure bill would need next year.
Reality
Blockchain Association founder Kristin Smith returns as interim CEO on October 17, days after the CLARITY Act failed a 49-50 Senate cloture vote. For investors waiting on a market-structure law, the Senate count matters more to the timetable than the change at the top.
Reality
Kristin Smith becomes the Blockchain Association's interim CEO on October 17 and keeps her job as president of the Solana Policy Institute. The industry-wide group will share its chief executive with one chain's lobby while the Clarity Act sits stalled in the Senate.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality
A September 15 cloture vote needs 60 votes, and only 14 working days remain before the October recess. The SEC is drafting a token exemption in the meantime.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality
The Senate's 49-50 procedural vote left the securities-versus-commodities test where it already was, with the SEC and CFTC free to keep writing rules under existing powers and those rules open to court challenge.
Reality
The crypto super PAC is spending $30 million in Ohio over six weeks, about a quarter of the $120.4 million it and its affiliates reported on September 20. The target is a Senate Banking gavel that Democratic caucus rules do not automatically restore.
Perspective Coverage
5 publishersReality
Eight trade groups told Senate leaders the bill's rewards carve-outs would let stablecoins pay interest by another name. The White House's own April study puts the lending at stake at $2.1 billion, or 0.02%.
Reality
A Detroit community banker who chairs the American Bankers Association says stablecoin rewards would pull funding out of local lending, and the argument now turns on who is allowed to pay a token holder for holding.
Reality