SEC Chairman Urges Senate to Future-Proof Crypto Market Rules

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul S. Atkins told a Senate committee Thursday (Feb. 12) that legislation like the CLARITY Act is the best way to provide long-term certainty for crypto markets.

Speaking during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on oversight of the SEC, Atkins said that he supports congressional efforts to pass the CLARITY Act and that the SEC is ready to implement the legislation upon its passage.

“A federal framework for crypto markets is long overdue,” Atkins said in his testimony. “Under Commissioner Hester Peirce’s leadership of our Crypto Task Force, SEC staff has provided more clarity in the past year than in the prior decade, but there is no action we can take that future-proofs our rulebook more formidably than nonpartisan market structure legislation.”

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., said in opening remarks delivered at the hearing that the CLARITY Act will establish clear rules of the road for digital assets by defining the responsibilities of regulators, protecting investors and giving businesses the certainty they need to innovate.

“Make no mistake, digital asset innovation will happen here at home—in places like Greenville, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; or Cary, North Carolina—not abroad anymore,” Scott said.

CoinDesk reported Thursday that Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a leading Democratic negotiator on the CLARITY Act, said during the hearing that he wants the bill to pass but that he wants to ensure that it prevents decentralized finance from being used for illicit purposes.

“We want to get this done,” Warner said, per the report. “It’s got to be done safely.”

The CLARITY Act will need the votes of at least seven Democrats, or more if it doesn’t get the votes of all the Republicans, according to the report.

PYMNTS reported Feb. 2 that one of the issues being debated around the CLARITY Act—whether stablecoins should be allowed to pay yield—has also been grappled with by jurisdictions around the world, which have enacted or are enacting a range of options.

The issue was the focus of a closed-door meeting at the White House that brought together representatives from banking and crypto trade groups.