HB 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (the CLARITY Act), creates a comprehensive federal framework for regulating digital commodities and related market participants. The bill divides oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), defines key terms such as blockchain, digital asset, digital commodity, decentralized governance system, and mature blockchain system, and establishes when a digital asset is treated as a security versus a commodity. It also sets out rules for primary offerings, secondary trading, disclosures, custody, recordkeeping, anti-fraud authority, and registration for brokers, dealers, exchanges, and other intermediaries.
A central feature of the bill is its treatment of digital commodities that were originally sold through investment contracts. It creates an exemption for certain primary sales of digital commodities by issuers, subject to disclosure, maturity, ownership, and offering-size limits, and it provides a path for a blockchain system to be certified as “mature” once it is no longer controlled by any person or group under common control. Once a blockchain is deemed mature, the bill generally relaxes some issuer-related restrictions and allows broader secondary-market trading of the associated digital commodity. The bill also exempts digital commodities from state securities laws by treating them as covered securities, while preserving federal anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority.
The bill would significantly change federal law by amending the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Commodity Exchange Act, the Investment Advisers Act, the Investment Company Act, the Securities Investor Protection Act, the Bank Holding Company Act, and related banking and bankruptcy provisions. It authorizes the CFTC to register and regulate digital commodity exchanges, brokers, dealers, associated persons, and qualified digital asset custodians, while also giving the SEC authority over certain offerings and mixed digital asset transactions. It further addresses self-custody rights, decentralized finance activities, custody by banks and broker-dealers, educational disclosures, and studies on NFTs, DeFi, blockchain payments, illicit finance, and foreign adversary participation.
The general sentiment reflected in the House vote suggests substantial support for the bill, though not unanimity. The House passed the measure 293-134 on July 17, 2025, indicating bipartisan backing but also meaningful opposition. The bill’s structure and findings emphasize innovation, market clarity, consumer protection, and U.S. competitiveness, suggesting supporters view it as a needed regulatory framework for a rapidly developing sector.
The main points of contention are likely to be the scope of federal preemption, the division of authority between the SEC and CFTC, and whether the bill draws the right line between securities and commodities. Critics may object to the broad exemptions for digital commodities, the treatment of decentralized finance activities, the limits on state securities regulation, and the possibility that assets could move into commodity treatment too early. Supporters, by contrast, appear to favor clearer rules, a path for compliant innovation, and explicit protections for self-custody, while still preserving anti-fraud, sanctions, and AML enforcement.
The bill would substantially revise federal securities, commodities, banking, and related laws to create a new regulatory regime for digital commodities. It adds definitions and registration frameworks for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, dealers, custodians, and associated persons; establishes disclosure and reporting obligations for issuers and intermediaries; and preempts much state securities-law treatment by classifying digital commodities as covered securities. It also directs the SEC, CFTC, Treasury, and banking regulators to issue extensive implementing rules, studies, and guidance, and it amends bankruptcy and custody-related provisions to address customer asset treatment and qualified digital asset custody.
The House vote of 293-134 indicates the bill had broad but not universal support, with a clear majority favoring passage and a sizable minority opposed. The bill’s findings and structure reflect a generally pro-innovation, pro-clarity posture, emphasizing consumer protection, market integrity, and U.S. competitiveness in digital assets. At the same time, the breadth of the regulatory overhaul and the shift of many digital assets into commodity treatment likely generated concern among opponents and skeptics.
Likely points of contention include whether the bill gives the CFTC too much authority over spot digital asset markets, whether the SEC’s investor-protection role is narrowed too far, and whether the bill’s definitions of mature blockchain systems and digital commodities are too permissive. Another major issue is federal preemption of state securities laws, which could be seen as limiting state enforcement. The bill’s treatment of decentralized finance, self-custody, staking, and secondary-market trading may also be controversial, as may the extent to which issuers and insiders can continue to influence a network while benefiting from commodity treatment.