By Jonathan Jachym, Global Head of Policy & Market Structure
The policy objective behind these frameworks is simple: protect consumers, foster innovation, and provide clear rules of the road. Despite more than five years of legislative effort, the US is not yet among them. But Congress has a narrow window to pass a market structure bill in the coming months.
To be clear, the US isn’t unregulated. It’s regulated fifty times over. Firms operating nationally navigate state money-transmitter regimes, FinCEN registration, and overlapping federal claims from multiple agencies.
What’s missing is a federal floor, a unified market structure framework that defines digital asset categories, resolves jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC, and sets consistent standards for intermediaries. Every jurisdiction that has established that floor has unlocked the same thing: consumer protection, investment, jobs, and institutional commitment that only follow when the rules are clear.
That’s what the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would provide. The House passed it last July with significant bipartisan support. Market structure legislation has not materialized overnight.
From the DCCPA to RFIA to FIT21, Congress has spent years and countless hours across both chambers and multiple committees building toward a comprehensive framework. The current bill reflects that accumulated work.
We operate around the world under hundreds of licenses and registrations today, with more coming online. We have navigated regulatory frameworks across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America.
The pattern is consistent: when jurisdictions provide clarity, investment, hiring, and building follow. The US is falling behind and the gap is now quantifiable. Today, 72 countries have established specific registration or licensing regimes governing crypto intermediaries.
The question is no longer whether regulatory clarity works; it’s whether the US will act on its own evidence. Since GENIUS passed ten months ago, the stablecoin market has grown roughly 24%, now reaching a record $321 billion in market cap according to CoinDesk Research.
Market structure legislation would extend that effect from stablecoins to the rest of the digital asset market: spot trading, custody, and the institutional infrastructure being built on top of them. It would also do the work fifty separate state regimes can’t do on their own: protect retail clients with uniform standards of disclosure and conduct, and give institutions the legal certainty to deploy capital at scale.
The legislation would be a boon for everyday Americans by allowing households and small businesses to capture more value on the yield of their assets than what they see from traditional banking deposits. If passed, digital asset market participants could offer structured yield products that can return a greater share of their value to users as opposed to just being captured by the institution.
And, importantly, this legislation would secure the US’s leadership in digital finance at a critical time when our geopolitical rivals are trying to foster alternatives to US financial rails and gradually reduce the centrality of the dollar.
The path to passing market structure legislation this year is narrow but real. Serious progress has been made across both committees and the White House has been explicit about the urgency. But the legislative calendar is unforgiving; every week of delay compresses the runway for markup, reconciliation, and floor passage.
The case for the US moving now is not that the rules will be ideal. The opportunity cost of further delay is no longer hypothetical. It is being measured, in real time, in capital formation, investment from firms and institutional business, and consumer protection gaps.
The window is open. It’s time to move market structure legislation out of committee. Pass it on the Senate floor. Send it back to the House. Put it on the President’s desk. The work is done. Finish it.
The post appeared first on Kraken Blog.
