After the "Clarity Act," a U.S. congressional crypto bill, stalled in the Senate, the SEC, CFTC, and the Federal Reserve quickly moved to establish their own cryptocurrency regulatory rules.

Last week, the Clarity Act, aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency market structure, failed to pass in the Senate. However, this legislative setback did not halt the regulatory process; instead, it prompted federal regulators to quickly fill the void. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was the first to introduce an "innovation exemption" framework for digital assets, allowing eligible platforms to trade tokenized U.S. stocks on-chain without registering as national securities exchanges. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also took action, issuing a "no-action" position that permits passive software providers, including crypto wallet applications, to offer users access to regulated derivatives without registering as introducing brokers, and submitted broader crypto market rules to the White House. Additionally, the Federal Reserve proposed on Thursday that stablecoin issuers it supervises must fully back their tokens with safe, liquid assets and hold capital for operational risks, as part of a multi-agency implementation plan for the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill signed by President Donald Trump in 2025. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is also accelerating the development of its own stablecoin rules to meet the statutory deadline in January next year.