Trump Pushes CLARITY Act as Bitcoin Surges

<a href="https://xpertsstudio.com/will-bitcoin-extend-its-rally-above-80000/” title=”Will Bitcoin extend its rally above $80,000?”>Bitcoin’s reemergence toward $80,000 has coincided with another potentially vital development for the crypto industry: president Donald Trump is pushing the Senate to complete the CLARITY Act.

At a White House event on August 19, Trump was calling for lawmakers to pass comprehensive crypto market-structure legislation that would allow the U.S. to overtake China in digital assets. Bitcoin then surged above $80,000 for the first time since May, though regulatory optimism was only one factor behind the rally.

What Is the CLARITY Act?

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act was previously passed by the House of Representatives with a bipartisan 294-134 vote in July 2025.

Its central aim is to divide the responsibility for crypto markets more clearly between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The bill would have digital assets classified as securities regulated primarily by the SEC and digital commodities and spot markets fall largely under the CFTC.

That may sound simple, but it would entail a major change.

The CFTC already regulates derivatives involving Bitcoin and other digital commodities, but its jurisdiction over spot crypto markets has historically been limited. Meanwhile, the SEC has spent years arguing through enforcement cases that many token sales and crypto businesses fell under existing securities law.

The CLARITY Act would attempt to replace that system with statutory rules.

The Senate Banking Committee passed its version of the legislation by bipartisan 15-9 vote in May 2026. The next major hurdle is a cloture vote scheduled for September 15, requiring 60 votes to advance.

Why Does Crypto Need the CLARITY Act?

The central issue for the U.S. crypto industry is clarity on which regulation applies.

Consider a token launched to fund development of a blockchain network. Early sales may resemble an investment contract, as buyers rely heavily on a development team. Years later, however, the same token may trade across a functioning decentralized network with millions of independent users.

Should that token remain a security?

The distinction is critical. Securities exchanges, commodity exchanges, broker-dealers, and ordinary crypto platforms operate under different regulatory regimes.

The CLARITY Act would attempt to recognize that digital assets can have different legal characteristics depending on the way they are issued and how the underlying network works.

• Disclosure rules for certain crypto issuers
• Resale restrictions for insiders
• Anti-evasion provisions
• Registration requirements for digital commodity exchanges
• Protections covering customer assets.

How Would the CLARITY Act Divide the SEC and CFTC?

The most important issue is whether an asset should legally be treated as a security or a digital commodity.

The CLARITY Act would give the CFTC considerably broader authority over digital commodity spot markets. Exchanges, brokers, and dealers dealing in those assets would face registration, recordkeeping, market-surveillance, and customer-protection requirements.

The SEC would continue regulating digital securities and securities transactions involving crypto assets.

Separately, the SEC is developing a framework known as Regulation Crypto Assets, including tailored exemptions and a token safe harbor. Those rules could complement the CLARITY Act if Congress passes it.

That could solve one of crypto’s longstanding problems.

A startup developing a blockchain needs money before its network becomes mature or decentralized. But if raising that money permanently turns its token into a security, the project can become trapped in securities regulation even after the network changes substantially.

The proposed system would attempt to regulate the fundraising transaction without necessarily treating the underlying token as a security forever.

Haven’t the SEC and CFTC Already Clarified Crypto Rules?

To some extent, yes.

In March 2026, the SEC and CFTC issued a major joint interpretation clarifying how existing securities laws apply to cryptocurrencies. The SEC explicitly categorized assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP▲$1.13, Solana, Cardano, Chainlink, Dogecoin, and Avalanche as digital commodities.

The agencies also clarified that non-security tokens could still be sold as part of an investment contract. That eliminated a large amount of the uncertainty that existed during earlier administrations.

So why is the CLARITY Act still necessary? Because agency interpretations are not statutes.

A future SEC leadership could change its interpretation. Courts may reach different conclusions. An administration with a radically different regulatory philosophy could rewrite practical rules again.

Federal legislation would provide something the current SEC-CFTC framework cannot: durability. For companies making ten-year decisions about where to build exchanges, custody systems, tokenization platforms, or blockchains, that difference matters.

Why CLARITY Could Be Bullish for Crypto

The immediate argument for bullishness is not because regulation automatically increases token prices.

It is because regulatory uncertainty creates a cost.

A financial institution considering a crypto product needs to know:

• Whether the asset it buys could later be classified differently
• Whether its trading venue is properly registered
• What custody rules apply
• Which regulator has authority over the transaction.

Every unanswered question increases legal and compliance risk.

The CLARITY Act would reduce this risk and help traditional financial companies enter crypto markets.

The effect can already be seen in regulated products. U.S. investors can now access spot funds linked to Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Chainlink, and other assets. Institutional tokenization experiments increasingly involve major banks, asset managers, and market infrastructure companies.

Clearer legislation would not create demand by itself, but it could remove one reason institutions are cautious. That explains why Trump’s renewed push for the bill has been interpreted positively by crypto markets.

Why Critics Say the CLARITY Act Still Has Major Gaps

The legislation is far from universally supported.

Democratic members of the Senate Banking Committee have argued that the latest CLARITY Act language weakens existing investor protection, creates loopholes around securities regulation, and does not provide sufficient safeguards against illicit finance.

There are also disagreements over decentralized finance. Regulating a centralized exchange with identifiable executives is relatively easy. Applying similar obligations to non-custodial software or decentralized protocols without a traditional operator is much harder.

Critics also argue that expanding the CFTC’s responsibilities without sufficient funding and staffing could create a regulatory system that looks comprehensive but difficult to enforce.

Another dispute has little to do with token classification.

Trump and his family have substantial financial interests in cryptocurrency businesses. Opponents have demanded stronger ethics restrictions preventing senior political officials from profiting from crypto ventures while influencing the rules governing the industry.

Supporters argue that disagreements over presidential ethics should not prevent Congress from establishing broader market rules affecting an industry worth trillions of dollars.

These issues explain why passage through the Senate is substantially harder than passage through the House.

Would CLARITY End Crypto Regulation by Enforcement?

It would reduce the problem, but probably not eliminate it.

No legislation can define every future token, DeFi protocol, staking product, NFT, or financial structure in advance. Crypto markets evolve too quickly.

Regulators would still write rules implementing the law, interpret ambiguous situations, investigate fraud, and bring enforcement cases.

What the CLARITY Act could change is the starting point.

Rather than asking whether the SEC might eventually sue a company and persuade a court that its token falls under securities law, market participants would have a statutory framework for determining which regulator and registration regime applies. This is a much more conventional way for financial regulation to work.

Can the CLARITY Act Pass in 2026?

The bill is closer to law than it has ever been.

The House passed the legislation with substantial bipartisan support in August 2025, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced a revised version in May 2026. Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott has continued pushing for a floor vote, while Trump has now publicly made passage an administration priority.

But bipartisan committee support does not guarantee enough votes on the Senate floor.

Ethics provisions have remained contentious. Democrats continue demanding stronger consumer and national-security protections, while parts of the traditional banking industry are also fighting elements of Washington’s broader crypto agenda.

The approaching midterm elections create another complication. Legislative time becomes increasingly scarce as November approaches.

The CLARITY Act could therefore become one of the most important unresolved pieces of crypto legislation heading into the final months of 2026.

Is the CLARITY Act What Crypto Finally Needs?

Probably not by itself. Crypto still needs rules for taxation, custody, privacy, and cross-border activity. But the CLARITY Act addresses perhaps the most fundamental problem: who regulates what.

The longer-term effect could be more important.

If Congress establishes durable rules separating digital commodities from securities and gives legitimate crypto businesses a workable registration path, the U.S. market would become easier for banks, asset managers, exchanges, and blockchain developers to navigate.

What is the CLARITY Act?

The CLARITY Act is U.S. digital-asset market-structure legislation designed to establish clearer rules for cryptocurrencies and divide regulatory responsibility between the SEC and CFTC.

Has the CLARITY Act passed?

The House passed the legislation in July 2025 by a 294-134 vote. The Senate Banking Committee advanced a revised version in May 2026, but the bill still needs further Senate action.

What would the CLARITY Act means for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is already treated as a commodity, so its legal classification would not change dramatically. The larger benefit could come from clearer regulation of exchanges, brokers, custody providers, and the wider crypto market.

Why does crypto support the CLARITY Act?

Supporters argue that companies need predictable rules defining whether digital assets are securities or commodities, which regulator oversees them, and how exchanges and token issuers can legally operate in the United States.

Why does some lawmakers oppose the CLARITY Act?

Critics argue that the bill contains weaknesses involving investor protection, illicit finance, DeFi regulation, regulatory reare major obstacles to final Senate passage

Source: bitcoinfoundation.org