The CLARITY Act is a market-structure bill, not a license for every token or platform to operate without securities rules. Its central job is to define a federal framework for digital commodities and divide responsibilities between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The official text matters more than predictions about what the bill might do for token prices. The version received in the Senate on September 18, 2025 was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. That record describes proposed legislation, not an enacted rule. Readers should check the current congressional status before treating any provision as binding law.
Where the SEC and CFTC fit
The bill sets out definitions across the Securities Act, the Securities Exchange Act and the Commodity Exchange Act. It also addresses digital assets first sold through an investment contract and later traded as digital commodities. That distinction is important because the legal treatment of an initial offer may differ from the treatment of later transactions in the asset.
For the CFTC, the text creates a registration framework for digital commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers, along with jurisdiction over covered digital commodity transactions. For the SEC, it retains roles around investment contracts, registered securities intermediaries and specified anti-fraud authority. Some firms could face obligations under both agencies rather than choosing the regulator they prefer.
What the bill asks intermediaries to do
The official text covers trading certification, segregation of customer assets, custody standards, conflicts of interest, recordkeeping and disclosures. One section directs the SEC to require brokers and dealers to explain how customer assets would be treated in insolvency, resolution or liquidation. Another requires futures commission merchants to use qualified digital asset custodians for covered assets.
These provisions make the bill relevant to exchanges and custodians as well as token issuers. Registration would carry operational duties. A platform would need to determine which activity it performs, which assets it handles and whether another registration applies.
Developers and decentralized finance
The text includes provisions for non-controlling blockchain developers and an exclusion for certain decentralized-finance activities. Those headings do not create a blanket exemption for anything labeled DeFi. The legal result would depend on the activity, the degree of control, the role of intermediaries and the definitions in the final enacted text and implementing rules.
A practical way to follow the bill
Track the official version, congressional actions and agency rulemaking separately. Amendments can change definitions, exemptions and effective dates. Passage by one chamber does not make a bill law, while agency guidance cannot substitute for statutory text. For a business, the useful questions are concrete: Does it issue an asset, operate a venue, take custody, execute trades or merely publish software? The answer determines which parts of the framework deserve legal review.
Adapted from What Is the CLARITY Act? The Crypto Bill That Could Reshape US Regulation, Explained.