Two of the most prominent alumni of America’s financial regulatory apparatus are making the same pitch: if the US wants a piece of the world’s largest derivatives market, it needs to stop regulating like it’s 1934.
Former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo and ex-SEC Chair Tim Massad have both called for principles-based regulation of digital assets, arguing that the current patchwork of rules and legislative inaction is effectively gift-wrapping market share for offshore venues. The perpetual futures market alone, valued at roughly $90 trillion in annual notional volume, operates almost entirely outside US jurisdiction.
The CLARITY Act: passed, then parked
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, better known as the CLARITY Act, was supposed to fix this. The legislation aims to draw a clean jurisdictional line between the SEC and the CFTC, clarifying which tokens count as securities and which are commodities. The House passed it on July 17, 2025, with a 294-134 bipartisan vote.
The Senate Banking Committee advanced its own version 15-9 in May 2026. Ethics disputes and competing legislative priorities have kept the bill in recess limbo, leaving the crypto industry in the same jurisdictional fog it has occupied for years.
