Hougan says SEC's Atkins offers a regulatory bridge if the bill fails. He warns prolonged limbo could stall the 2026 bull run. Thune expects a vote this week.
Alpha Score of 37 reflects weak overall profile with weak momentum, weak value, poor quality, moderate sentiment.
The CLARITY Act limps toward the Senate's Friday recess deadline. Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said this week the industry's fate does not hinge on a single vote.
"Even if Clarity fails to pass this week, that won't give us a final resolution," Hougan said. "The SEC is ready, willing, and able to come out with rules that address the same issues [as] Clarity."
The reason Hougan is not forecasting disaster has a name: Paul Atkins. The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman used a July 31 speech to vow to bring the entire U.S. financial system onchain. He said the agency is ready to provide crypto rules if the Clarity Act flounders in Congress.
Atkins' Project Crypto initiative has already produced a Regulation Crypto rulemaking package on the agency's 2026 agenda. It covers token registration exemptions and a safe harbor for decentralizing projects. The package also includes rules for broker-dealer custody and trading venues. Atkins described the package as a bridge to the Clarity Act, one that could carry the industry through a legislative failure and deliver much of the same certainty by rule rather than statute.
Hougan pointed to Atkins' readiness as a cushion under the market this week. The reversal from the agency's posture two years ago, he said, gives the industry a fallback that did not exist before.
Hougan's larger argument is that the industry has outgrown any single bill. Stablecoins and tokenization have already achieved "escape velocity," he says. Adoption will continue regardless of what the Senate does before Friday. If the Clarity Act passes, he expects it to trigger an immediate bull market. If it fails, he anticipates volatility but not the end of the cycle.
Not everyone at Bitwise is quite so relaxed about the calendar. The firm has separately warned that a failure could stall the 2026 crypto bull run by prolonging the uncertainty institutions hate most. Prediction market traders have turned bearish on the bill becoming law this year. Others in the industry remain sunnier. One Coinbase executive said last week he was relentlessly optimistic about the act's chances.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he still expects a floor vote on the CLARITY Act this week.
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