Washington, July 18 (IANS) US lawmakers have urged the Senate to pass a sweeping digital assets bill, arguing that clear federal rules are needed to protect investors, bring cryptocurrency businesses back from overseas and preserve American leadership in financial technology.
The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence made the case for the CLARITY Act during a hearing at New York’s historic Federal Hall. The legislation would divide oversight responsibilities between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“Our goal is clear: replace regulation by enforcement with clear rules of the road for digital assets,” subcommittee chairman Bryan Steil said.
The House passed the legislation one year ago by a 294-134 vote. The Senate is now considering its own approach to regulating the digital asset market.
French Hill, chairman of the full House Financial Services Committee, said predictable rules were necessary to make the United States the centre of the global digital ecosystem.
“This is President Trump’s goal,” Hill said. “We stand ready to help our Senate colleagues complete the work and get it to the president’s desk.”
Industry witnesses told lawmakers that years of regulatory uncertainty had pushed investment and innovation outside the United States.
Randi Abernethy, head of clearing and group risk at digital asset firm Bullish, said the company initially operated under regulators in Germany, Hong Kong and Gibraltar because the United States lacked a federal framework.
“We are not asking to operate in the shadows. We are asking for a rule book, and we intend to build under it,” she said.
Abernethy said federal regulation would subject registered exchanges to requirements covering segregated customer assets, capital, market surveillance and examinations.
“Regulatory clarity is not a favour to industry,” she said. “It is how Congress brings this activity onshore under American regulators with American investor protections.”
Sarah Aberg, chief legal officer at Nova Labs, said regulatory ambiguity had imposed substantial costs on her company, which supports the Helium decentralised wireless network. Helium operates more than 140,000 hotspots and provides services to millions of users, according to her testimony.
Aberg said the SEC sued Nova Labs in January 2025 over digital asset claims that were later dismissed with prejudice.
“We were glad to be vindicated, but we spent years and significant resources defending claims that were ultimately abandoned,” she said.
Ryan Louvar, chief legal officer at WisdomTree, said tokenisation could modernise the ownership, transfer and settlement of financial products without changing the underlying character of regulated securities.
“The question is no longer whether finance will become more digital. It will,” Louvar said. “The question is whether the United States will continue to lead in developing the next generation of financial infrastructure.”
The CLARITY Act seeks to establish when a digital asset falls under SEC jurisdiction and when it should be treated as a digital commodity overseen by the CFTC. It also contains protections for software developers and providers that do not control customer assets.
–IANS
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