U.S. Financial Services Committee reviews the CLARITY Act at New York field hearing, stressing a federal digital asset framework split between the SEC and CFTC

The U.S. Financial Services Committee held a field hearing in New York on the CLARITY Act, using the one-year anniversary of the House’s bipartisan passage of the bill to restate support for a clearer federal market structure for digital assets. Lawmakers and witnesses framed the measure as a response to regulatory uncertainty, arguing that it would replace case-by-case enforcement and a patchwork of state regimes with clearer rules on which activities fall under securities regulation and which fall under commodities oversight. The main substantive theme was allocation of authority. Witnesses described the bill as distinguishing digital assets that function as securities from digital commodities that support operational networks, preserving Securities and Exchange Commission authority over securities, including tokenized securities, while giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission clearer authority over centralized, custodial exchanges and other intermediaries in secondary markets for digital commodities. They also highlighted a federal regime for intermediary activities that would include registration, customer-asset protection, recordkeeping and anti-money laundering obligations, alongside provisions intended to avoid requiring software developers and infrastructure providers to register solely for activities such as writing code, validating transactions or maintaining protocols when they do not control customer assets or act as traditional intermediaries. At the hearing, members also pressed for the legislation to advance further, referring to the House’s prior passage of the bill and stating that it cleared the Senate Banking Committee two months ago but remains on the Senate calendar.