Paul Atkins Backs CLARITY Act as Senate Races Against Recess Deadline

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins posted on X on Tuesday, July 28, stating that he is “committed to supporting Congress in advancing the CLARITY Act, including providing technical assistance” – positioning the SEC’s regulatory apparatus directly behind a 616-page crypto market structure bill that must clear the Senate within days of a looming August recess. This is not simply an endorsement. It is the sitting SEC chair signaling that his agency will actively shape legislative language on a bill that redraws the jurisdictional boundary between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – a line that has remained contested since crypto markets became systemically relevant. CLARITY Act: A Senate Bottleneck Years in the Making The CLARITY Act passed the House last year with a 294–134 bipartisan vote, per pre-research context, establishing cross-party viability but leaving the Senate as the decisive hurdle. The Senate Banking Committee released an updated, merged bill text on July 22, 2026, a document running to 616 pages that attempts to codify which digital assets fall under SEC jurisdiction as securities and which migrate to CFTC oversight as di...