Bernstein Says Failed Clarity Act Vote Will Accelerate SEC, CFTC Rulemaking

The failure of the Clarity Act, a U.S. crypto market structure bill, to clear the Senate is set to spur regulators to speed up their own rulemaking, Bernstein said.

Cointelegraph reported on September 16 that Bernstein said in a report the same day that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission would move aggressively and quickly to roll out new rules to make up for time lost in negotiations over the Clarity Act.

The U.S. Senate on September 15 voted on a cloture motion to begin floor consideration of the Clarity Act, but the measure failed 49-50. While the vote was not a final vote on the bill itself, Bernstein said another vote this year appears unlikely given the remaining legislative calendar before the November midterm elections and disagreements over ethics provisions.

Bernstein said the SEC and other regulators would move to establish rules on token classification frameworks and decentralized finance, or DeFi. It also pointed to possible regulatory steps including an innovation exemption for stock tokenization, expedited approval of perpetual futures tied to real-world assets, or RWAs, and revisions to rules governing sports prediction market contracts.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in July that if the Clarity Act failed to pass the Senate, the agency was prepared to draft crypto regulations on its own.