Blockchain Legal Resource

On May 29, 2025, a bipartisan group of members in the House of Representatives from the Financial Services and Agriculture Committees introduced the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. The bill seeks to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States, with regulatory jurisdiction primarily split between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Central to the bill is the definition of “digital commodity,” which includes “a digital asset that is intrinsically linked to a blockchain system, and the value of which is derived from or is reasonably expected to be derived from the use of the blockchain system.” Under the bill, digital commodities would be excluded from the definition of a security under the federal securities laws, and the CFTC would be primarily responsible for spot markets in digital commodities as well as the registration and oversight of various categories of intermediaries transacting in digital commodities. Digital commodities sold pursuant to an investment contract would also not deemed investment contracts themselves under the Howey test. Additionally, the bill creates a detailed mechanism for the offering of an investment contract that includes a digital commodity, which would be overseen by the SEC.

The bill covers a number of other topics relating to digital commodities, including facilitating secondary trading of digital commodities on mature blockchains, operation of alternative trading systems involving digital commodities, transactions in certain payment stablecoins, and custody of digital commodities. Certain decentralized finance activities involving digital commodities (such as providing user interfaces for a blockchain network, publishing and updating software, and developing blockchain wallets) would be exempted from regulation. The bill further authorizes the SEC and CFTC to engage in rulemaking to implement certain provisions of the legislation, and instructs various federal agencies (including the CFTC and SEC) to produce various studies involving digital commodities.

A detailed section by section summary of the bill is here.