Rep. French Hill, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, stated this week that crypto rulemaking from the SEC and CFTC falls short of what the market requires: a legislative solution through Congress.
Speaking to Fox Business on Wednesday, the Arkansas Republican credited SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC acting Chair Mike Selig for using exemptive relief to define digital assets. He acknowledged their efforts to "give definition to digital assets and digital commodities, so we can have a functional system here in the U.S. for this innovative form of finance."
However, Hill emphasized the limitations of the regulatory approach. "In my judgement, these regulatory policies fall short of what we have to do, which is have a legislative solution," he said. He pointed to his authorship of FIT21 in the previous Congress and the Clarity Act in the current one as examples of needed permanent law changes.
Hill expressed hope the Clarity Act could pass during the lame-duck session, arguing, "We need that permanent law change to make sure America is number one in digital assets and blockchain technology."
Regulatory Actions and Legislative Stalemate
The SEC recently rolled out an innovation exemption for tokenized stocks and proposed new rules for how investment advisers and funds can custody crypto. The CFTC sent crypto-markets rulemakings to the White House and floated a plan to bring crypto exchanges under federal oversight.
The Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate in a 49-50 vote last month. The bill would have set rules for the majority of cryptocurrency activity in the United States and clarified jurisdictional lines between the CFTC and the SEC on digital assets.
Fragility of Regulatory Relief
Hill's core argument is that agency exemptions and guidance are inherently fragile. Such relief can be challenged in court or unwound by a future administration, whereas a statute provides durable protection.
