The U.S. House Agriculture Committee has voted 47–6 to advance the “Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act,” a bill that is designed to create clear rules for crypto space. The hearing took place at the Rayburn House Office Building and featured discussion from lawmakers across different party lines.
The CLARITY Act is meant to answer the question of who should be in charge of watching over the digital space. It draws the line between what counts as a digital commodity and what counts as a security.
With this vote, this job will now be given to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which would handle crypto tokens seen as digital commodities, while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would still oversee crypto assets that are considered as securities.
According to Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson: “ The Clarify Act provides certainty on digital assets to market participants,…It brings needed customer protections to digital assets-related activities and intermediaries” Gleen believes that the bill can help the crypto space in the United States grow if it could set a stage to make its rules more fair and understanding.
House of Rep, Angie Craig also admits that it’s important to act on the bill now. “This is not a perfect bill,” she said, “But if we don’t act, it will frow without the consumer protections that retail investors need and deserve.”
Before the vote, the committee had a discussion on the bill. They looked at some changes that would give the SEC more authority. On changes, now being called the “Genslar-era provision,” let the agency decide individually which tokens are securities even if they were already approved or sold. To a lot of people, this particular power could bring back the same confusion the bill is supposed to fix.
Critics even said it reminded them of some SEC actions like when the agency said Ethereum wasn’t security, then went ahead to take legal action against Ripple.
Meanwhile, eight crypto firms including Uniswap, Jump, and Coin Center have reportedly come up to show support for adding Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) to the bill. This one protects developers who build blockchain tools but don’t control user funds.
What is next is the GENIUS Act, a bill that would regulate stablecoins. A final vote on this bill could happen this week, according to analysts.
Also Read: South Korea Paves the Way for Stablecoin Revolution with New Bill
