The United States encryption industry has faced further resistance to a federal regulatory framework. According to Kristin Smith, president of Solana Policy Institute, it may be decided in the next few days whether Clarity Act will be able to move forward, but consultations around ethical provisions have become the biggest obstacle today.
The code of ethics is stuck.
Smith, in an interview with Fox Business, said that after the bill was passed by the House of Representatives a year ago, the text had incorporated the views of both parties. In her view, this remains the more complete current programme of encrypted market structure legislation.
However, Democrat parliamentarians have called for the inclusion of ethical provisions to regulate possible conflicts of interest between elected officials and encryption. Smith stated that this had become a prerequisite for some parliamentarians to support the bill, and that the outcome was not a matter for the industry itself.
The Senate vote still has a variable.
Smith believes that if the White House and the Democratic Party agree on this issue, there is still a chance that the current impasse will be broken. She expected that, if key differences were to be eased, the Senate might try to move forward within the next one or two weeks.
She also stated that the bill, once landed, could improve investor protection and promote more traditional financial institutions to adopt encryption techniques and integrate related products and services into existing financial systems.
Projected market decline through expectations
The forecast market is more cautious than the industry's public statements. Kalshi data show that the U.S. Encrypted Market Structures Act has dropped the probability of becoming law by 1 January 2027 to about 36 per cent.
It was also reported that the Financial Services Commission of the United States House of Representatives would hold an informational hearing in New York on how Clarity Act could promote innovation. To date, however, the text of the updated bill has not been published explicitly.