The person steering the most consequential piece of crypto legislation in US history isn’t a senator, a lobbyist, or a Silicon Valley CEO. It’s Patrick Witt, the Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, and he’s been quietly working the phones between lawmakers, regulators, and industry players to get the CLARITY Act across the finish line.
The bipartisan bill aims to do something Washington has failed to accomplish for years: draw a clear line between the SEC and CFTC when it comes to overseeing digital assets. Witt has set a target of July 4, 2026, for passage.
What the CLARITY Act actually does
The CLARITY Act attempts to end that guessing game by formally delineating which digital assets fall under SEC jurisdiction and which belong to the CFTC.
Beyond the jurisdictional question, the legislation also tackles stablecoins, the dollar-pegged tokens that have become the backbone of crypto trading and increasingly, cross-border payments. The stablecoin provisions reportedly include a framework for collaboration between traditional banks and crypto firms on yield-bearing products. Witt himself has acknowledged that the stablecoin compromise has left both sides somewhat dissatisfied.
