Clarity Act still faces long road despite Senate progress, says Jefferies

The Clarity Act is widely viewed as the crypto industry’s most important market structure bill because it would establish clear rules for when digital assets are regulated as securities by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or commodities by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), replacing years of regulatory uncertainty.

Supporters say that legal clarity would make it easier for banks, asset managers and other institutions to launch tokenized products, custody services and blockchain-based financial offerings, potentially unlocking broader institutional adoption and investment in the sector.

According to Jefferies, passage would provide the durable regulatory framework banks, asset managers and exchanges need to expand tokenization, custody, staking, lending and other blockchain-based services. The bank also expects it to accelerate tokenized securities, broaden crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) offerings beyond bitcoin BTC$58,348.58 and ether (ETH), and revive the pipeline for crypto infrastructure IPOs.

A delay, however, would extend regulatory uncertainty. While recent SEC, CFTC and OCC guidance has improved the outlook, the report said agency actions can be reversed by future administrations, potentially prompting regulated financial institutions to slow blockchain initiatives while reassessing legal and compliance risks.

The bank’s analysts expect the legislative process to drive volatility in crypto-linked equities including Circle (CRCL), Coinbase (COIN) and CoinDesk’s owner Bullish (BLSH), as well as select crypto tokens.