The CLARITY Act is gradually coming into effect, with 7 DeFi protocols riding the wave of benefits

Author: Tindorr

Translation: Chopper, Foresight News

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Everyone in the market is watching the regulatory jurisdiction dispute between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), debating which altcoins qualify as "digital commodities." This is just a surface-level interpretation, which has long been priced into the market.

The real profit logic of the CLARITY Act lies elsewhere: the bill quietly delineates the legal boundaries for institutional DeFi activities; at the same time, with strong lobbying from banks, it directly closes off the mainstream channels for ordinary users to passively earn yields from idle stablecoins.

This will not only trigger a new wave of institutional capital entering DeFi but also force massive capital inflows into specific protocols that have already established compliant frameworks.

Below are the 7 main projects I have identified as beneficiaries.

30-Second Summary of the CLARITY Act

The bill was passed by the House of Representatives in July 2025 (vote: 294 in favor, 134 against); on May 14, 2026, it entered the Senate Banking Committee review stage (Note: as of May 14, the CLARITY bill has already been approved by the Senate Banking Committee).

A two-sentence summary of the core content of CLARITY:

Clarifies the division of regulatory authority between the SEC and CFTC, with digital commodities under CFTC jurisdiction;

Establishes safe harbor rules for DeFi protocols, node validators, and open-source developers, no longer simply classified as money transfer agencies or brokers.

The most important part of this article is Section 404 regarding stablecoin yields: the GENIUS Act, which took effect last year in the U.S., prohibits stablecoin issuers from directly paying interest to users; however, exchanges, DeFi platforms, and intermediaries can still offer passive yield on users’ idle funds.

Why the CLARITY Bill Has a Broader Impact Than Just Legalizing DeFi

Once the CLARITY bill is enacted, it will immediately trigger two major changes:

Facilitates institutional entry by clearing regulatory hurdles. BlackRock, Apollo, Deutsche Bank, pension funds, corporate treasuries, and others have been watching. Compliance teams cannot assess whether certain assets are securities, so they dare not allocate heavily. Now, with clear CFTC jurisdiction and safe harbor provisions for DeFi, institutions can finally make large-scale moves.

Massive capital withdrawing from idle stablecoin yield farming. The previous model of earning about 5% annualized yield by holding USDC on exchanges will disappear. Hundreds of billions seeking stable returns must find new allocation channels.

Therefore, these two massive capital flows (institutional investors finally entering + retail investors seeking yields) will converge on the same type of assets: compliant, with actual business scenarios, and structured yield products.

These protocols are precisely tailored for this new regulatory landscape.

Pendle: Underlying Yield Infrastructure

Pendle is the DeFi protocol most compatible with the CLARITY bill. It can split all yield-bearing assets into principal tokens (PT) and yield tokens (YT): holding PT locks in a fixed annual yield; holding YT allows betting on yield rate fluctuations. The entire process involves active trading and liquidity provision, not just passive holding earning interest.

Before the bill: institutions recognized its product mechanism but, due to regulatory ambiguity, could not participate at scale; tokenized real-world assets (RWA) remained in pilot or offshore packaging stages; whether PT and YT tokens are securities could not be legally defined.

After the bill: PT/YT trading is clearly categorized under CFTC commodity derivatives regulation; the ban on passive stablecoin yields pushes massive funds into active yield products like Pendle; large asset managers like BlackRock can custody tokenized RWAs and private credit assets, providing clients with on-chain fixed income exposure.

Example: Apollo Credit Fund ACRED, tokenized via Securitize and wrapped as eACRED through Ember Protocol, went live on Pendle in April 2026. Holding PT-eACRED allows one-click configuration of Apollo’s entire credit asset portfolio, including corporate loans, asset-backed lending, high-quality loans, distressed assets, and structured credit. All products are composable and operate fully on-chain.

Post-CLARITY, this model will become the standard template for U.S. institutional capital entry, with Pendle becoming the core yield infrastructure for incremental institutional liquidity.

Key points to monitor: RWA asset pool lock-up volume, progress in cooperation with compliant custodians, issuance scale of PT tokens.

Morpho: On-Chain Prime Broker

Morpho specializes in permissionless lending markets supporting customizable risk parameters.

Before the bill: Using tokenized RWAs as collateral for loans risked being classified as unregistered derivatives; lack of compliant, trustee-qualified liquidity pools; liquidation risks and oracle risks deter large capital deployment.

After the bill: Strategies from Gauntlet, Steakhouse, and others can establish compliant licensed liquidity pools, customize collateral ratios, oracle parameters, position limits, and KYC onboarding; institutions can use stablecoins to collateralize real-world assets, cycle leverage arbitrage, and provide market liquidity—all within a clear CFTC regulatory framework. Funds pushed out of passive yield markets will continue flowing into Morpho pools, earning compliant yields through active lending.

The on-chain prime broker model will be officially operational. Stablecoin funds displaced from passive yield markets will keep flowing into Morpho pools, earning compliant yields via active lending.

Points to watch: Management of institutional funds in pools, new RWA collateral categories, number of institutional partnership strategies launched.

Sky (USDS / sUSDS)

Sky (formerly MakerDAO) allows users to deposit USDS to mint sUSDS, earning protocol yields, including stability fees, reserve assets like US Treasuries, and RWA yields. Sky is arguably the closest product in DeFi to tokenized money market funds.

But the question is: is depositing USDS to mint sUSDS an active business activity, or is it a passive yield earning that is now restricted?

Sky has been mimicking Ethena’s approach, partnering with compliant institutions to build compliant frameworks. If regulators adopt a lenient interpretation of "exemption for active business," sUSDS could become one of the largest compliant on-chain yield products, with exposure to RWA assets.

The stablecoin yield ban will directly drive idle USDC funds into USDS savings products.

Points to monitor: Rules set by the U.S. Treasury and CFTC after the bill’s passage.

Maple Finance: On-Chain Lending Desk

Maple Finance focuses on institutional lending pools. Users deposit stablecoins as lenders, with borrowers undergoing strict due diligence (market makers, hedge funds, institutional treasuries); its Syrup pools are open to retail access.

Before the bill: Uncollateralized institutional lending risked being classified as unregistered securities; banks and insurance companies, due to regulatory ambiguity, could not participate compliantly; early pools experienced defaults, leading to cautious attitudes among compliance teams.

After the bill: Maple will transform into a compliant on-chain credit asset issuance platform; banks and insurance firms can participate without barriers.

Maple already has institutional compatibility: Syrup pools are integrated with Morpho, enabling cross-protocol credit asset portfolios. Bitwise and Sky had already laid out Maple strategies before the bill.

CLARITY only removes regulatory restrictions that limited its growth.

Points to watch: Total locked value in Syrup pools, diversification of institutional borrowers, new credit strategies for RWA issuers.

Centrifuge: Native RWA Asset Issuance Layer

If Pendle handles yield splitting and Maple manages credit pools, Centrifuge is at a higher level—the origin of real-world asset tokenization. Private credit, commercial paper, structured layered loans, and SME loans can all be encapsulated as on-chain tokens, seamlessly integrating into the DeFi ecosystem.

Before the bill: Real-world asset tokenization was still experimental; the classification of tokens as securities, commodities, or new categories was ambiguous, deterring institutional deployment; lack of federal-level custody and settlement rules; most pools were small and operated via offshore structures.

After the bill: Centrifuge will become the core gateway for RWA tokenization; tokenized private credit layered assets will have clear regulatory classification, enabling compliant custody and large-scale use as collateral for institutional lending; banks and asset managers can participate directly on-chain in SME financing, invoice discounting, and structured credit without offshore setups.

Protocols based on STRC assets: Fixed Income Pathway

Strategy issues perpetual preferred shares STRC, listed on Nasdaq, with an annual dividend yield of about 11.5%, and monthly interest adjustments to keep the price near $100 face value. Apyx and Saturn Credit are two mainstream STRC wrapping protocols: Apyx issues apxUSD, apyUSD (total supply exceeding $400 million); Saturn issues USDat, sUSDat; both have PT/YT markets on Pendle.

Before the bill: The entire business pathway was established, but U.S. compliant funds could not large-scale custody, restructuring, or repackage these wrapped assets.

After the bill: PT trading is categorized under CFTC commodity regulation, with DeFi safe harbor protections; large U.S. compliant funds can buy PT tokens related to Apyx/Saturn, lock in about 12 months of fixed income, and then package these into fixed-income products for retail investors via traditional brokers.

The full process: Strategy issues STRC → Apyx/Saturn wrap dividends on-chain → Pendle splits into PT principal tokens and YT yield tokens → U.S. compliant funds buy large amounts of PT, locking in fixed yields → packaged as retail-accessible "Bitcoin-linked fixed income products (approx. 12% annualized)."

Points to watch: PT token lock-up volume, whether U.S. compliant funds launch STRC-linked fixed income products, and monthly dividend adjustment trends.

Common Logic of the Seven Protocols

From a higher perspective, a unifying pattern emerges:

These protocols preemptively adopted KYC compliance and business scenario frameworks before regulatory pressure;

CFTC jurisdiction delineation + DeFi safe harbor, thoroughly mitigates the biggest securities classification risk for institutions;

The stablecoin passive yield ban redirects massive funds into these structured, real-world asset-backed, actively managed yield products;

Institutions will naturally become the primary counterparties, seamlessly integrating their existing custody and prime broker infrastructure into these DeFi protocols.

Some points to note

The bill has not yet been finalized. It is currently only under committee review, and must go through the process of merging House and Senate versions, reaching a 60-vote threshold in the Senate, coordinating texts between chambers, and presidential signing. Market prediction platform Polymarket estimates a 76% chance of enactment by 2026, but this is not guaranteed.

All protocols carry inherent DeFi risks, including smart contract vulnerabilities, oracle failures, stablecoin de-pegging, and counterparty credit risks. CLARITY only clarifies regulatory boundaries; it does not eliminate investment risks.

"Beneficiary Upside" presupposes that institutions will enter according to market expectations. While consensus is strong, actual implementation often takes longer than market pricing suggests, and onboarding can take months of adjustment.

Summary

The CLARITY bill is not just a simple "DeFi legalization" story; that is a surface narrative already priced into the market.

The real second-order market logic is: when passive stablecoin yields are banned, where will the massive profit-seeking capital flow? Which protocols and tracks can accommodate institutional incremental capital without needing temporary regulatory restructuring? This does not necessarily mean token prices will rise; token economic models still require individual analysis.