Elon Musk

Donald Trump

JPMorgan

President Donald Trump

The Senate's failure to advance the CLARITY Act has left the U.S. crypto industry without the clear rules it has long sought.&nbsp;
JPMorgan says federal regulators are stepping in to fill the gap, but their actions may not provide lasting certainty for crypto businesses and investors.
The <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/clarity-act" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Clarity Act</a> is a market-structure bill backed by <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/donald-trump" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">President Donald Trump</a> and the digital asset industry. It fell 10 votes short of the 60 it needed to advance.
The bill would have split crypto oversight between two regulators: the <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/securities-and-exchange-commission" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)</a>, which polices securities markets, and the <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/commodity-futures-trading-commission" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)</a>, which oversees commodities and derivatives.
Congress is now heading into recess before the November midterms, so the bill is effectively shelved.
In a <a href="https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-10-22-jpmorgan-crypto-regulatory-moves-clarity-act-failure-risks-423473" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">note released Wednesday,</a> JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said federal regulators are filling part of that gap. How long their work lasts is less certain.
The analysts expect the bill to stall this year and possibly return in 2027.
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<h2 id="four-agencies-take-over-where-the-senate-stalled">Four agencies take over where the Senate stalled</h2>
The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/sec" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">SEC</a>&nbsp;introduced a five-year “Innovation Exemption” for <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">tokenized stocks</a>, which are digital versions of company shares recorded on a blockchain.
Tokenized shares must carry the same financial and voting rights as the originals. Synthetic tokens that only track a stock’s price don’t qualify, and trading platforms face limits.
The analysts said those limits weighed on sentiment for application tokens such as Ether, which power <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/blockchain" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">blockchain</a> networks. Flows into exchange-traded funds and futures positioning both weakened, they said.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the federal regulator for national banks, has granted trust charters to a growing number of stablecoin issuers and digital asset firms.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/stablecoins" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stablecoins</a>&nbsp;are crypto tokens pegged to a currency such as the U.S. dollar. The charters bring custody, reserve management and token issuance under federal oversight.
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A community bankers’ group has sued the OCC over some of those approvals. The analysts said charters can be challenged but are hard to unwind once granted.
The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/cftc" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">CFTC</a>&nbsp;is exploring leveraged&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/cryptocurrency-trading" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">crypto trading</a>&nbsp;on regulated U.S. platforms, though the analysts don’t expect it to advance before 2027.&nbsp;
Bringing that activity onshore could deepen liquidity and improve price discovery, they said. Over time, that could favor regulated venues that institutions prefer.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which sets U.S. accounting rules, is weighing whether some stablecoins can count as cash equivalents on company balance sheets.&nbsp;
Public comments are due Nov. 19. The analysts said adoption would support uses beyond trading, such as payments and managing corporate cash.
<h2 id="crypto-policy-runs-on-a-two-year-window">Crypto policy runs on a two-year window</h2>
A regulator’s decision does not carry the weight of a law. The analysts warned that this patchwork could be reversed within two years if a Democrat wins the White House.&nbsp;
Only legislation from Congress would make the framework durable, they said.
Even so, the analysts described crypto market sentiment as relatively constructive.
The report comes days after JPMorgan Asset Management <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/jpmorgans-31-year-old-report-embraces-once-mocked-asset" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">added Bitcoin to its long-term return forecasts for the first time</a>. It projects returns of about 10% a year.
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JPMorgan flags a major risk for crypto investors

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