A senior regulatory affairs executive at Paradigm, a prominent cryptocurrency investment firm, has warned that the long-debated U.S. crypto market structure bill — also referred to by some as the CLARITY Act — could take many years to implement, even if it becomes fully law.
Justin Slaughter, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Paradigm, emphasized that the prospect of enactment is only one step in a far longer process. Recent reports have noted that the bill has been referred to the Senate committee stage after securing strong backing from both parties, following continuous talks.
This comes as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the exchange “can’t support the bill as written” after reviewing the Senate Banking draft over the past 48 hours, warning that rules on tokenized equities, DeFi, and stablecoin rewards would make the legislation “materially worse than the current status quo.”
The Senate Banking Committee plans to mark up its version of H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, on Thursday, concluding months of negotiations over how crypto will be regulated in the U.S. The bill would, for the first time in the Senate, establish legal rules for blockchain tokens, dividing oversight between the SEC and the CFTC. At the same time, lawmakers prepare to debate stablecoin rewards, DeFi, and presidential ethics before it leaves the committee.
Notably, the markup is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. ET and can be viewed on the committee’s website. This markup comes at a time when the Senate Agriculture Committee has decided to delay its hearing until Tuesday, January 27.
Slaughter raises concerns about the current rulemaking process
Concerning the bill’s fate, sources close to the situation who wished to remain anonymous as the talks were private noted that even if the bill secures approval from both the House of Representatives and the Senate and then the US president signs the bill into law, Slaughter still anticipated that it is likely to take about two presidential terms for the effective implementation of all the rules.
To clarify this point, the sources referenced the crypto policy executive’s recent post on X, in which he stated that “45 rulemakings [are] required in this bill alone,” suggesting that “the process of putting this bill into effect will likely extend beyond this presidential term and probably into the next one.”
Analysts comment on the situation, emphasizing that the crypto industry has been awaiting straightforward regulations from lawmakers for a long time.
Meanwhile, it is worth noting that for a rule to be successfully executed, rulemaking processes require the collaboration of several regulators and agencies assigned to analyze laws that legislators have approved.
Other activities that can be included in this process include publishing proposed regulations, collecting feedback from the public, and establishing final regulations that are legally effective. Notably, these final regulations require a significant amount of time.
In a statement, Slaughter stated that, “Based on my experience, the Dodd-Frank Act is still not complete today, and most of the rules that aren’t from the CFTC were finalized between 2013 and 2018, which was 3 to 8 years after it was passed.”
Slaughter claims to be optimistic about the crypto structure bill
Slaughter earlier asserted that it is essential for the crypto market structure bill to be approved before any other rule is established. However, he still insisted that this process is time-consuming.
Regarding the markup scheduled for Thursday, the crypto policy executive mentioned that he will be paying close attention to see if there will be a collaborative approach from both parties or if things might take a different turn.
Nonetheless, he acknowledged that he had never seen a crucial bill become a law without initially encountering some challenges. Even with this assertion, Slaughter expressed optimism concerning the fate of the crypto market structure bill.
In the meantime, several analysts stated that they agree with Slaughter’s argument that rulemaking is time-consuming. To support this claim, they issued an example of a bill that took time to be implemented as a law. In this example, the analysts claimed that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was considered a crucial financial reform in the United States.
It was implemented on July 21, 2010, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, following the significant financial crisis that occurred in 2008. According to their research, agencies took several years to establish rules that ultimately led to positive changes in the market.
