SEC Chairman Paul Atkins reiterated that the U.S. must maintain its global leadership in AI, crypto, and financial innovation, emphasizing that the concrete way to achieve this is through the passage of the CLARITY Act through the Senate. This statement followed a similar call from Trump via Truth Social, where he described the law as a crucial step to safeguard America's technological leadership.

The CLARITY Act has already passed the House of Representatives and, with bipartisan support, has been approved by the Senate Banking Committee, now awaiting consideration by the entire Senate. The primary goal of the law is to clearly share regulatory responsibility over digital assets between the SEC and the Futures Trading Commission, establishing clear criteria for determining whether an asset qualifies as a commodity or a security. Senator Bill Hagerty also argued that this law, building upon the already successful GENIUS Act in the stablecoin space, would strengthen the dollar's global role in digital finance.

Atkins' approach to this issue has followed a consistent line since he took office in April 2025, shifting from the previous administration's punitive oversight strategy to a model based on formal rulemaking and market clarity. A concrete example of this is the Project Crypto initiative, which aims to develop a clear classification system for crypto assets. Categories such as digital commodities, network tokens, and digital collectibles are not considered securities, while the specific circumstances constituting an investment contract according to the Howey test are also being evaluated.

Atkins also highlighted the transparency of public blockchains, stating that recording every value transfer in a permanent and auditable ledger provides a level of transparency unseen in any traditional financial system. He also made a separate point about the impact of AI on financial markets, stating that AI agents will increasingly participate in market intervention and financial decision-making at machine speeds, and that blockchain infrastructure allows these systems to move value instantly. He stressed that the SEC should not confine these new technologies to old rules, stating, in his own words, "our job is to set the rules of the game and act as referee, not to choose the winning team."

The main concern underlying this whole process is the risk of innovation shifting overseas if the US doesn't establish clear rules in this area. Atkins has reiterated this in past speeches, arguing that if the US insists on navigating every on-chain innovation through a labyrinth of securities law, these innovations will be moved to jurisdictions more willing to differentiate between asset types and pre-write the rules.

For those following US crypto regulation through Gate, the key point to watch is this: this rhetorical support is not new, it has been repeated for months, but the real determining factor is whether and when the CLARITY Act will actually be put to a vote in the Senate. If the law passes, both token classification and the registration obligations of exchanges and custodians will be clarified, which would be a tangible development that could facilitate the entry of institutional capital into the US crypto market.

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