Trump pushes Clarity Act as SEC proposes first crypto fundraising rules and CFTC warns it will act if Congress stalls. The agencies are not waiting.
Alpha Score of 35 reflects weak overall profile with weak momentum, weak value, poor quality, moderate sentiment.
Washington's usual August lull disappeared this week. The SEC unveiled its first crypto-specific rulemaking proposal on Tuesday. President Donald Trump hosted industry executives at the White House on Wednesday. The CFTC convened the inaugural meeting of its Innovation Advisory Committee on Thursday. Each agency signaled a different view of how crypto regulation should evolve, and none said Congress gets to decide alone.
Trump urged lawmakers to pass a "fair version" of the Clarity Act when they return next month, according to industry executives who attended the White House meeting. He was referring to ethics provisions proposed by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) that have become the main obstacle to bipartisan support. Trump has argued some of those provisions unfairly single him out.
Ahead of Trump's public remarks, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met privately with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, a16z Managing Partner Chris Dixon, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi, two sources familiar with the meeting said. The discussion covered what the bill could mean for bringing crypto entrepreneurs back onshore and how the White House could help bridge the ethics dispute.
CFTC Chairman Mike Selig made clear his agency would not wait indefinitely. "Passing Clarity is the surest way that we can prevent another Gary Gensler from running a rogue campaign of lawfare against the individuals and companies in this room today," Selig said at the Innovation Advisory Committee meeting Thursday, referring to the former SEC chair under whom the agency brought 125 crypto-related enforcement actions. "If Clarity continues to stall because of Democratic obstruction, the CFTC will utilize its existing authorities to begin establishing a regime for crypto asset markets," he added, directing staff to begin exploring such rules.
The SEC, meanwhile, formally proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, a framework that would allow certain offerings of up to $5 million over four years or $75 million annually without full SEC registration. It would also create a conditional safe harbor for crypto assets once an issuer's essential managerial efforts have ended and preempt certain state securities registration requirements.
The proposal was approved through a "seriatim" process, meaning commissioners voted individually outside a public meeting, an SEC spokesperson said. The SEC had scheduled an open meeting on the rule for last Friday but canceled abruptly, citing an "unforeseen scheduling issue." Crypto In America reported earlier this week that pressure from both the White House and Wall Street groups contributed to the cancellation. The White House was concerned the SEC's rules could complicate negotiations over the Clarity Act. Wall Street groups raised legal concerns about a separate innovation exemption for tokenization, arguing changes of that scale should proceed through formal rulemaking, not exemptions or no-action relief. Semafor later reported that a "White House mix-up" also played a role, with officials confused about which proposal the SEC planned to advance.
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