Clarity Act will benefit banks more than crypto, former CFTC chair says

Former CFTC Chair Christopher Giancarlo says banks, much than crypto firms, request the stalled Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.

Mar 9, 2026, 8:44 a.m.

The banking manufacture has much to summation from the stalled U.S. Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a measure aimed astatine regulating integer assets, than the crypto industry, according to Christopher Giancarlo, a erstwhile president of the country's Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

"The banks request this much than crypto," Giancarlo told Scott Melker connected Sunday’s Wolf Of All Streets podcast. "Their wide counsels are telling their boards: You can’t put billions of dollars to physique these integer rails unless you’ve got regulatory certainty. Banks can't spend regulatory uncertainty."

The measure has been deadlocked since January, with crypto companies, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pushing back against proposals from the Senate Banking Committee to prohibition crypto firms from paying rewards to stablecoin holders.

Stablecoins, tokens whose values are pegged to an outer notation specified arsenic the dollar, are cardinal to the blockchain-based payments infrastructure being debated successful the legislation: Banks spot them arsenic a cardinal gathering artifact for a caller integer strategy that could determination wealth faster and much efficiently, portion crypto firms are already experimenting with their usage successful planetary payments.

The banks, however, are disquieted that allowing stablecoin rewards could trigger a superior formation from their coffers and privation a “level playing field,” arsenic JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon enactment it. Trump medication officials person besides criticized banks for holding the authorities “hostage.”

Giancarlo warned that if banks defy this, crypto volition proceed to physique anyway, perchance moving offshore.

"If the banks defy this now, it’s not going to spell away. It’s conscionable going to spell to Europe. It’s going to spell to Asia … and past American banks volition say, 'Whoa.' Our analog, identity-based, message-based strategy is nary longer moving anyplace outside," helium said.

Giancarlo enactment his likelihood of the measure passing astatine astir 60-40. “We’ve got a batch of issues to resoluteness earlier we’re going to get this done,” helium said, noting some sides person already missed the White House’s March 1 deadline.

More For You

Coinbase says caller U.S. tax-reporting rules for crypto are cluttered, confusing

The IRS’s 1099-DA taxation signifier for reporting integer plus gains comes with a load of over-reporting, Coinbase's taxation experts warned.

What to know:

• For the archetypal twelvemonth of the rotation out, exchanges volition study lone gross crypto transaction gains, leaving customers needing to fig retired their outgo basis.
• A precise ample radical of unsuspecting retail customers volition beryllium asked to study gains and losses connected tiny transactions, cluttering up the revnue system.
• The IRS is needlessly including dollar-pegged stablecoins similar USDC wrong its gross reporting, Coinbase said.