Strategist Warns China Could Set Standards if CLARITY Act Dies

China could take the lead in defining global digital-asset rules if Congress fails to pass the CLARITY Act, according to James E. Thorne, chief market strategist at Wellington-Altus Private Wealth.

Thorne posted on X on June 27 that opponents who expect Senators Elizabeth Warren and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to block the bill are missing the real consequence.

“What they miss is that the real winner in that scenario is not ‘prudence,’ it is China.”

He argued that the debate is not really about any single token. It is about whether U.S. capital markets and the dollar will sit at the center of the next generation of financial infrastructure, or end up operating on rails designed elsewhere.

“The Clarity Act is not about blessing every new token; it is about whether US capital markets and the dollar sit at the center of the next financial architecture, or end up operating on rails designed somewhere else.”

Thorne pointed to historical precedents. The transfer of transistor technology after World War II and the later offshoring of semiconductor manufacturing both ceded strategic advantages the United States once held. He sees digital finance as a comparable inflection – a moment where rulemaking will determine competitive outcomes before markets fully mature.

President Donald Trump has framed cryptocurrency as a battleground in the U.S.-China rivalry. He has said the United States should become a “Bitcoin superpower” and a global hub for crypto innovation, warning that hesitation would let competitors like Beijing set the agenda.

The risk event is the failure of the CLARITY Act to move through Congress. If the bill stalls, the United States loses the chance to define standards for tokens, exchanges, settlement systems, and cross-border market access. China would gain an opening to build its own financial rails.

What would reduce the risk is passage of the legislation with amendments that address both innovation and consumer protections. What would make it worse is further delay, particularly if Beijing accelerates its own digital yuan and blockchain infrastructure projects in the meantime.

Thorne’s warning comes at a moment when the U.S. crypto industry is pushing for regulatory clarity, and China is expanding its blockchain pilot programs. The outcome of the CLARITY Act will signal which country shapes the rules for the next wave of digital finance.

JPMorgan Chase, whose CEO is a vocal critic of crypto, is one of the firms that would face the most direct impact from any shift in standards – either as a rule-taker under a U.S. framework or under one designed in Beijing.