Now that congressional action on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act has been punted until mid-September, there has never been a better time to ask whether the Clarity Act is actually good for crypto.
In Washington, the “Clarity Act” and the “crypto bill” have become interchangeable. The assumption is that if you support crypto, you support Clarity; if you oppose Clarity, you oppose crypto.
That framing is remarkably convenient. It is also wrong.
For years, the crypto community endured congressional paralysis as a parade of crypto bills stalled out. (Let’s observe a small moment of silence for the Token Taxonomy Act, the DCCPA, and FIT21, to name a few inhabitants of the legislative graveyard.)
Throughout the legislative paralysis, the crypto community survived the Gensler era of enforcement actions that should have never been brought, as well as the catastrophic collapses of Celsius, Voyager, and FTX, all made worse because the laws were insufficient to govern the industry.
At some point, almost any comprehensive bill gave the illusion of progress.
