The Senate’s failure to pass the CLARITY Act exposes just how flawed the U.S. legislative process has become — and the 67 million Americans who own cryptocurrency are running out of patience.
After months of negotiation and broad support from both parties and the Trump administration, a bill that had already cleared the House with bipartisan support died in the Senate. With Congress heading home for the midterm elections, the message to consumers, entrepreneurs, and the developers building the next generation of financial infrastructure is unmistakable: Congress would rather punt than lead.
The United States leads the world in crypto revenue, projecting $15.1 billion in 2026. But this is now in jeopardy without clear rules. With Congress on the sidelines, that responsibility now falls on the Trump administration. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission must deliver the clear, durable rules that Congress couldn’t. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Michael Selig have already signaled they will act on their existing January harmonization plan, but they must act quickly to avoid allowing the U.S. to fall behind.
Meanwhile, the industry has its own obligation to prove crypto’s utility. Skeptics have built their case on price charts, meme coins, and speculation, but the real story is playing out in how Americans send, save, and settle money.
Stablecoins are making cross-border payments cheaper and faster. PayPal’s PYUSD, a federally regulated dollar stablecoin, sits inside PayPal and Venmo. It lets platform users send digital dollars overseas in seconds, at a fraction of the roughly 6.5% average fee that banks charge on cross-border transfers.
Tokenized funds allow everyday savers to earn institutional-grade yield without the institutional gatekeeping. Franklin Templeton’s Benji, the first U.S.-registered money market fund on a public blockchain, has a $20 retail minimum, runs from a personal device, and pays out short-term Treasury yield straight into the holder’s wallet every day, including weekends and holidays.
On-chain infrastructure settles in seconds, around the clock. The XRP Ledger (XRPL) finalizes a payment in three to five seconds for a fraction of a cent. Financial institutions are even using XRP-based payments to move funds across corridors where banking is slow and expensive.
These are the types of products that millions of Americans use every day. But muddled rules and narratives will push this growth offshore, and the costs to the U.S. will build up fast. What our country needs to do next is obvious.
The Trump administration has an opportunity to step up where Congress couldn’t. The SEC, CFTC, Department of the Treasury, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have the leadership and tools needed to write the rules that will give the industry regulatory clarity.
First, the SEC and CFTC’s joint January harmonization framework laid the groundwork, but what’s missing is a public timeline for when final rules will take effect. Once the comment period on the proposed Regulation Crypto Assets framework closes on Oct. 20, the agencies should move quickly to publish a schedule — one that matches the pace at which the industry is already moving.
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Second, the Treasury and OCC should move in step with market regulators on stablecoins. The GENIUS Act gave federally regulated dollar-stablecoins a foothold, but companies such as PayPal still must navigate a patchwork of multiple state licenses to move stablecoins around the country. A single, coordinated framework would allow Americans to reap the benefits of stablecoins sooner.
The Trump administration should treat this as a competitiveness issue as well as a financial-regulation issue. In a frictionless market, it has never been easier for a U.S.-based company to pack up and rebuild somewhere where the rules are already known. The time for clear rules is now — if Congress won’t act, everyone else must.
Craig Stevens is a partner at Washington-based DCI Group and leads the firm’s cryptocurrency practice. He served as a commissioner on New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s Commission on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
