SEC Chairman Paul Atkins told Fox Business he expects the CLARITY Act to advance through the Senate in September and eventually land on President Trump’s desk for a signature.
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would establish a federal framework dividing oversight of digital assets between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Scheduled vote on September 15
The Senate is set to hold a procedural cloture vote on September 15 at 2:15 p.m. ET, requiring 60 votes to move the bill to formal debate.
The House already passed its version, H.R. 3633, by a 294-to-134 margin in July 2025, with 78 Democrats joining Republicans.
The Senate Banking Committee then advanced its own version by a 15-to-9 vote in May 2026.
Atkins framed the push as an effort to undo damage from the prior administration, telling Fox Business:
“I think this is an important step to try to reassure, to bring back on to the United States shore, innovators whom we have over the past administration’s four year term, chased offshore, frankly, for them to develop their products and raise money abroad.”
He also tied the urgency to the reality of borderless capital flows:
“We can’t fool ourselves. American investors in the age of the internet can send their money anywhere. So we need to make sure that they can do it here in the United States under United States law.”
Regulators aren’t waiting for Congress
The SEC has already moved ahead on its own.
On August 25, the agency sent a crypto custody proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, aiming to clarify how investment advisers can hold digital assets for clients.
Atkins described the broader regulatory shift in plain terms:
“We’re changing the past approaches to try to update rules, modernize them in the age of blockchain and crypto assets.”
CFTC
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig has taken a similar stance, saying in August that:
“crypto will get market structure regardless of bill.”
Although he has not specified a timeline for releasing proposals.
