Bitwise CIO says GENIUS Act helped unlock crypto fundraising as tokenization now eyes Clarity Act boost

Lesson one: Productive assets, not speculative tokens. Arc’s raise was backed by a portfolio of private credit loans generating 8–12% yields. Investors were not buying a governance token with uncertain value; they were buying equity in a cash-flowing business. This is a departure from the 2021–2022 cycle, where capital flowed to protocols with no revenue.

Lesson two: Institutional infrastructure wins. Canton’s network is built with privacy features, permissioned validators, and compliance tooling that banks require. The $1.5 billion raise was led by traditional financial institutions, not crypto-native VCs. Hougan noted that the infrastructure layer is now being funded by the same entities that will use it, which changes the risk profile of these projects.

Lesson three: Regulatory tailwinds compound. Tempo’s remittance platform operates in a space that directly benefits from stablecoin legislation. The GENIUS Act’s clarity on payment stablecoins reduced the legal risk for Tempo’s cross-border settlement model. Hougan’s view: each legislative step forward does not just de-risk existing projects; it unlocks new categories of fundraising that were previously unfinanceable.

Clarity Act: The Next Legislative Catalyst for Tokenization

The Clarity Act–the Crypto Liquidity and Investor Transparency Act–is now the focus. The bill, introduced in the Senate in February 2026, aims to define the legal status of digital assets as securities or commodities and to create a registration pathway for tokenized securities. If passed, it would directly impact the tokenization of equities, bonds, and real estate.

For platforms like Arc and Canton, the Clarity Act would allow them to tokenize a broader set of assets without the threat of enforcement actions. The capital raises that Hougan analyzed were for private credit and institutional network infrastructure. The next wave, he suggests, will be for public securities tokenization–a market that could dwarf the current RWA space. The decision point for traders and allocators is whether the Clarity Act gains momentum in the Senate Banking Committee before the midterm elections. A committee vote scheduled for April 2026 is the next concrete marker. For broader context on how regulatory shifts are reshaping digital asset markets, see crypto market analysis and Why 2026 Crypto Regulation Is a Liquidity and Access Risk Event.

The three billion-dollar raises are not a signal that crypto is back to its 2021 speculative peak. They are evidence that regulatory clarity is re-pricing the cost of capital for tokenized assets. The GENIUS Act opened the door for private credit and stablecoin-adjacent platforms. The Clarity Act would open the door for public securities. The trade is not on the legislation passing; it is on the repricing that occurs as the probability of passage shifts from 30% to 50% and beyond. For those tracking the tokenization thesis, the April committee vote is the date that matters.