Interviews with senior executives and legal experts suggest broad agreement that regulation will keep moving. Their expectations diverge over whether agency action can become a durable foundation or leave businesses adapting to rules vulnerable to political and legal change
Lev Breydo, an assistant professor of law at William & Mary Law School, said Clarity exposed divisions within the industry, from ethics provisions to the yield fight with community banks
“A coalition that looked unified against Gensler found out definitions create winners and losers,” he said
Despite the setback, agencies are moving quickly to fill the regulatory gap
The SEC’s five-year “Innovation Exemption” introduced September 17 lets qualifying venues trade tokenized U.S. stocks through blockchain liquidity pools while it works on permanent rules
The CFTC followed on October 5, seeking feedback on rules for leveraged retail crypto trading and a new registration category for crypto markets. That starts a lengthy public comment and rulemaking process, rather than putting rules into effect
Meanwhile, the SEC’s October 1 custody proposal would let state trust companies safeguard client crypto and allow advisers and funds to hold it themselves under certain conditions
Looking into 2027, Breydo said he expects the SEC to focus on completing offering and custody rules and building on its tokenized-stock exemption. He sees the agencies’ March joint interpretive release as an important foundation, superseding earlier guidance and allowing coordination within existing law
But a key gap remains: ordinary, unleveraged spot trading still lacks comprehensive federal oversight, beyond the CFTC’s anti-fraud and anti-manipulation powers. Closing that gap was a central goal of Clarity
For some executives, the legislative setback could produce faster commercial opportunities
“The SEC and CFTC are already moving proactively to provide the regulatory certainty markets need, and that’s unlocking a wave of M&A across digital assets, traditional financial services, and fintech alike,” said Paul McCaffery, head of digital assets at investment bank KBW
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said he sees the agency approach as more favorable in the short term than legislation that would have required years of follow-up rulemaking. He also expects more protocols to adopt token buybacks, particularly buy-and-burn models, following SEC clarification he said gives investors greater confidence
“The fact that the SEC staff is even willing to say these things explicitly is a win,” Yoon said, while noting staff FAQs are not SEC rules
Michael Lie, global head of digital assets at market maker Flow Traders, said he sees comprehensive regulation as inevitable as finance moves toward 24/7 trading. He is watching innovation exemptions and changes to transfer-agent rules, with European and Asian regimes already advancing
Legal experts see progress arriving in stages, with implementation the hardest part
“The biggest gap is implementation,” said Derek Lowrey, head of legal at Newton Labs (formerly known as Magic Labs). Without legislation, overseeing venues, intermediaries, decentralized finance (DeFi) and spot markets remains harder, he said. Existing anti-money laundering, sanctions and record-keeping obligations nevertheless give compliant teams a basis to keep building
Kevin Kreuser, general counsel at domain-name tokenization firm D3, said tokenized real-world assets particularly need clearer jurisdictional boundaries
“Agency action is welcome, but it does not provide the same long-term certainty as legislation,” he said
Jim Petrila, chief legal officer at Dromos Labs, which develops Aerodrome and Velodrome, takes a more bullish view: growing liquidity and tokenized securities on public blockchains could make reversal impractical within two years
“For DeFi, the signal is bullish,” he said
Still, the benefits may be uneven. Hougan argued Clarity's failure preserves a regulatory moat for Coinbase (COIN), Kraken and other incumbents, delaying competition that could lower costs. The emerging outlook is faster experimentation, but unresolved questions over who can compete and how firmly the new rules will hold
Breydo said only Congress can deliver a comprehensive framework with statutory durability
1Everyone wants SCOTUS to take up prediction markets: State of Crypto 5 hours ago2President Trump declares 'energy ceasefire' between Russia and Ukraine7 hours ago3IMF finds demand for tokenized stocks, says the market is still volatile, illiquid10 hours ago4One year after 10/10 flash crash, bitcoin and ether liquidity have rebuilt, but altcoins still face risks1 day ago5Tokenized commodities look beyond gold as lending and oil open new markets1 day ago6Bitcoin's $19 billion wake-up call: One-year after flash crash, has crypto learned anything?1 day ago7Bitcoin's volatility has plunged, but extreme price swings are more frequent than in 20181 day ago8Robinhood Chain slowdown spreads from fees to trading as transactions fall more than 40%1 day ago9XRP Ledger patched decade-old bug that could create billions of dollars in XRP from nothing1 day ago10Visa survey says nearly half of APAC consumers open to using stablecoins by 20311 day agoLatest Research Beyond the Risk-Free Rate: Diversified Real World Yield in Productive StablecoinsBeyond the Risk-Free Rate: Diversified Real World Yield in Productive StablecoinsDiversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years
Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years
Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years
