If you have been waiting for Washington to pick a lane on crypto, the SEC's top official thinks the signal is coming this month. Speaking to Fox Business on Tuesday, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins said "The Clarity Act will be voted on in the Senate on the 15th of September." He added, "I anticipate and hope that it will be passed by the Senate and sent ultimately to the President's desk for a signature."
Atkins also said the agency is reworking its approach to fit the blockchain era, noting, "We're changing the past approaches to try to update [rules], modernize them in the age of blockchain and crypto assets." Pro-crypto lawmakers sought to finish the bill prior to the August recess, yet the Senate postponed the vote until September. The proposal would create a structure for sorting digital assets into securities, commodities, or stablecoins.
The Clarity Act cleared the House last year but stalled for much of this year after clashes among bank industry groups, legislators, and crypto firms about whether platforms like Coinbase can offer yield to their customers. Some lawmakers also pushed to tighten ethics language, and a fresh draft began circulating in July that would bar government officials from promoting crypto and from making money from it.
While the Senate vote waits, agencies are not standing still. Atkins confirmed the regulator is pressing ahead with rules to support the crypto industry, and both the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have said they plan to keep working to shape crypto policy. Just last week, the SEC sent the White House a proposal to "clarify the framework for the custody of crypto assets" for investment advisers and companies.
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A clear rulebook can make crypto markets less guessy and more usable for everyday finance. If the Senate sticks to a mid-September vote and regulators keep refining guardrails, expect more clarity on which tokens are treated like stocks, which are more like commodities, and how stablecoins fit in. That kind of definition can affect everything from which platforms offer yield to how your broker or adviser handles digital assets.
