Crypto policy moved on three fronts at once this week. The SEC formally proposed its first dedicated crypto rulebook, the CFTC seated its first Innovation Advisory Committee, and the Senate's long-stalled CLARITY Act became the subject of an increasingly public fight between the crypto industry and the banking lobby ahead of a September 15 procedural vote.
Bull Theory summarized the week as a turning point: President Trump met crypto executives at the White House and said the administration is considering buying large amounts of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the SEC proposed its first-ever crypto rulebook, and the CFTC held the inaugural session of its Innovation Advisory Committee. The SEC's own announcement confirms the rulebook, titled "Regulation Crypto Assets," is meant to create a fit-for-purpose framework for crypto investment contracts and would codify the treatment of assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum as outside securities law in a binding rule rather than informal guidance.
Trump Presses Congress on CLARITY
Wu Blockchain reported that President Trump, speaking at a White House event with technology industry leaders, said Congress should pass a "fair version" of the CLARITY Act and that the administration had launched "Project Crypto" to facilitate blockchain adoption. That pressure lands at a delicate moment: the Senate delayed its vote until after the summer recess, and the September 15 session is a cloture vote on the motion to proceed rather than a vote on final passage, requiring 60 votes just to open debate.
Banks vs. the Bill
The fight over the bill's substance has grown sharper. Coin Bureau reported that Senator Cynthia Lummis accused banks of actively working to block the CLARITY Act, alleging that banks want GENIUS Act stablecoin provisions reopened before they'll support the bill, then fired the lobbyists who had negotiated a compromise in favor of pushing for a do-over. Separately, Coin Bureau noted that Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott said "Elizabeth Warren's team wants to run crypto out of the country, period," as the bill has ballooned from under 300 pages to over 600 after Democrats demanded more than a hundred changes.
Elizabeth Warren's team wants to run crypto out of the country. Period.
Related: CFTC Warns It Will Write Its Own Crypto Rules if CLARITY Act Stalls
The legislative gridlock is precisely why the SEC and CFTC have moved on their own. Both agencies have framed their recent actions as filling gaps while Congress deliberates rather than waiting on it, a dynamic that the CFTC signaled explicitly when it warned it would write its own crypto rules if the CLARITY Act stalled. This week's Innovation Advisory Committee session, which brought together executives from major exchanges and derivatives platforms to weigh in on crypto, AI and prediction-market rules, is the clearest evidence yet that the agency intends to follow through.
What's Actually at Stake in September
The industry's own optimism has not faded despite the delay; Ripple's CEO said recently that the U.S. has never been closer to a clear regulatory framework for digital assets, a view that squares with this week's SEC and CFTC moves even if Congress itself remains gridlocked. Even a successful cloture vote on September 15 would only open debate, not settle the bill. Unresolved issues include ethics language meant to prevent senior officials, including the president, from profiting off crypto holdings, developer-protection provisions that law enforcement groups argue create anti-money-laundering gaps, and how stablecoin yield should be taxed and regulated, an issue banks say could pull over a trillion dollars in deposits out of the traditional banking system if written too permissively. Markets have taken notice: prediction-market odds on the bill becoming law in 2026 have fallen sharply from where they sat earlier this year, even as the White House and regulators push forward on parallel tracks.
