Crypto Industry Splits Over CLARITY Act Market Structure Bill

A division appears to be forming among crypto industry executives regarding the market structure bill, with crypto giants such as Coinbase pulling support, but others stating that any regulation is better than none.

“Crypto builders need clear rules of the road,” said Chris Dixon, managing partner at a16z Crypto on Thursday.

He added that over the past five years, Republicans, Democrats, and the Trump Administration “have worked closely with members across the crypto industry to protect decentralization, support developers, and give entrepreneurs a fair shot … at its core, this bill does that.”

The comments are about the controversial market structure bill, or CLARITY Act, which was due for a Senate markup this week but has been delayed by the Senate Banking Committee today.

“It’s not perfect, and changes are needed before it becomes law. But now is the time to move the CLARITY Act forward if we want the US to remain the best place in the world to build the future of crypto,” said Dixon. 

Coin Center executive director, Peter Van Valkenburgh, was also positive, stating on Thursday that “we’re optimistic about where the current market structure draft stands.”

The legislation has become a hot topic following the high-profile withdrawal of support from America’s largest exchange, Coinbase, which said the bill wasn’t good enough in its current state. 

“Too many issues” with the legislation 

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on Wednesday that he had reviewed the Senate Banking draft text but “unfortunately can’t support the bill as written.”

“There are too many issues, including a defacto ban on tokenized equities, DeFi prohibitions, giving the government unlimited access to your financial records, and removing your right to privacy, erosion of the CFTC’s authority, stifling innovation, and making it subservient to the SEC, [and] draft amendments that would kill rewards on stablecoins, allowing banks to ban their competition.”

Armstrong showed appreciation for all the hard work by members of the Senate to reach a bipartisan outcome, “but this version would be materially worse than the current status quo.”

“We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill,” he said. 

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Head of research at Bitwise Invest, Ryan Rasmussen, echoed the sentiment, stating that the current draft of the CLARITY Act is bad for tokenization, stablecoins, DeFi, privacy, builders, users, investors and innovation.

Crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky flagged the same issues as Armstrong but added, “we have an opportunity at markup, and hopefully afterward on the Senate floor, to make CLARITY the best it can be. For better or worse, the text will change a lot before it becomes law. Let’s go for better.”

Venture capitalist Tim Draper was also in support of the Coinbase chief executive, stating: 

“Brian Armstrong makes sense here. The current Senate compromise is worse than no bill at all. Sounds like the banks have been meddling.”

Bitcoin shrugs off the controversy 

Speaking to Cointelegraph, OKX Singapore CEO Gracie Lin said that Bitcoin’s latest rally “reminds us that markets often start pricing outcomes before policymakers conclude their debates.”

“We’re seeing Bitcoin responding to renewed ETF demand, improving liquidity, and growing optimism that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act could bring a more stable framework to U.S. digital asset markets,” she added. 

“From here, the focus is on three things: how CLARITY evolves through the Senate’s Banking Committee, how resilient spot ETF flows prove to be, and whether the late‑January Fed meeting keeps financial conditions supportive – or triggers a sharp reset.”

Bitcoin (BTC) topped $97,600 in late trading on Wednesday but had cooled slightly to $96,350 at the time of writing. 

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