After months of deadlock, the most significant piece of American cryptocurrency legislation is moving again. Republican senators released the final text of the CLARITY Act over the weekend, including a revised ethics package that President Donald Trump has finally accepted.
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would split oversight of digital assets between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), replacing the current patchwork where classification is often decided through enforcement actions and lawsuits. The House passed its version in July 2025 by 294 votes to 134, but the bill stalled because of Trump's own financial interests.
His disclosures showed crypto-linked income of between $1.4 billion (€1.2bn) and $2.2 billion (€1.9bn), including the TRUMP memecoin and World Liberty Financial, a decentralised finance venture tied to his family. Democrats had insisted on enforceable restrictions, which the White House resisted until now.
Under the agreed text, federal officials and their spouses must divest significant crypto holdings or place them in a blind trust, and are barred from issuing or sponsoring digital assets while in office. State attorneys general will be able to enforce these rules—a concession the White House had previously rejected because it exposes the president to prosecutors he does not appoint.
Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, who has led crypto legislation since co-authoring the Responsible Financial Innovation Act in 2022, released the text alongside Banking Committee chair Tim Scott and Agriculture chair John Boozman. Their committees oversee the two agencies that would share power. In a social media post, Lummis said Trump "voluntarily agreed to unprecedented ethics restrictions." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had publicly pressed lawmakers to move the bill forward last week.
Markets react, but the vote is only procedural
Bitcoin rose 1.3% on Monday morning to roughly $77,700. The sharper move came in HYPE, the token behind Hyperliquid, up more than 3% to around $80. Hyperliquid runs the largest decentralised exchange for perpetual futures—contracts with no expiry date—and handles a substantial share of all on-chain derivatives volume. Wall Street has warmed to it quickly, with three US spot ETFs launched in May and S&P Dow Jones licensing the S&P 500 for a perpetual contract. Yet American users still cannot trade on the platform directly, and legislation defining how decentralised protocols are regulated is precisely what would change that.
However, caution is warranted on timing. Tuesday's vote is a cloture motion, which merely opens debate and requires 60 votes. Republicans hold 53 seats, so at least seven Democrats must cross over. Amendments, final passage, and House agreement would all still need to fit into a shrinking calendar before the midterm campaign. Senator Lummis has warned that failure now could delay the legislation until 2030, leaving it in the hands of the next US administration.
Europe already has its rules—and is revising them
As is often the case, the EU moved first on regulation. The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has applied across the bloc since December 2024, giving Europe a single licensing regime while Washington argued about jurisdiction. Asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens—stablecoins pegged to currencies or baskets of assets—face the strictest treatment, with issuers required to hold reserves, publish a whitepaper, and obtain authorisation before going to market. Everything else, from Bitcoin to smaller tokens, falls under lighter disclosure rules.
Exchanges, custodians, and brokers must register as crypto-asset service providers, subject to capital requirements, governance standards, and rules on handling client funds. The regime's main attraction for business is "passporting": a firm licensed in one member state can operate across all 27 without seeking approval again, the same principle that underpins European banking and fund management. MiCA also bans insider dealing and market manipulation in crypto, and requires providers to warn customers that their holdings may not be protected by compensation schemes.
But this framework is now under review. The European Commission is running a consultation on how MiCA has worked in practice, which closes on 30 September after a one-month extension. Among the questions is how the rules should handle decentralised finance—the same issue holding up the American bill. The outcome could shape how Europe's crypto market evolves, especially as the US finally moves toward clarity. For European investors and firms, the contrast is stark: while Washington debates, Brussels has already set the rules of the game.
