Crypto’s biggest legislative push in years just ran into an unexpected wall: nuns, bishops, and nearly 100 Catholic leaders who say the bill doesn’t do enough to stop human traffickers from using digital assets.
The Alliance to End Human Trafficking, backed by Catholic organizations across the country, has formally opposed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, known as H.R. 3633. Their concern is straightforward: a bill designed to bring order to the crypto markets may inadvertently make it easier for bad actors to exploit those same markets.
What the bill actually does
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is the crypto industry’s best shot at a comprehensive federal framework, and it has been moving through Congress with real momentum. The House passed it in July 2025 by a vote of 294 to 134, a margin wide enough to suggest genuine bipartisan appetite for getting crypto regulation done.
The bill’s core mission is to end the long-running turf war between the SEC and the CFTC over who gets to regulate digital assets. It does this by classifying many tokens, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, as commodities rather than securities, handing primary oversight to the CFTC. It also creates registration categories for crypto intermediaries like exchanges and brokers. The bill also addresses pathways for certain digital assets to transition from security to commodity status based on their decentralization level.
