The CLARITY Act is designed to establish rules for digital assets while dividing regulatory responsibilities between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The bill covers areas including registration, supervision, recordkeeping and custody, but it does not lay out specific procedures for firms to reconcile transactions or replace outdated back-office systems.
Regulatory clarity and operational efficiency address different issues. H.R. 3633, introduced by Chairman French Hill on May 29, 2025, would establish a comprehensive market-structure framework for the digital-asset industry.
Under Section 401, the CFTC would receive exclusive authority over cash and spot transactions involving digital commodities conducted on or through registered digital-commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers. The legislation would also provide these entities with an expedited path to CFTC registration.
The SEC would continue to hold anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority over transactions involving permitted payment stablecoins and digital commodities conducted on or through SEC-registered entities.
Section 304 would require companies registered with both the SEC and CFTC as digital-commodity exchanges, brokers or dealers to implement policies addressing conflicts of interest. It would also require the two regulators to establish a memorandum of understanding designed to prevent duplicated oversight and facilitate the exchange of relevant information.
CLARITY Act Leaves Broader Operational Challenges Unaddressed
While the bill would clarify regulatory responsibilities, it would not directly solve many of the problems facing capital-markets back offices. An AutoRek study surveying 250 senior operations, finance and technology executives across the U.S. and U.K. found growing pressure from increasing transaction volumes, new asset types, fragmented data systems and limited AI adoption.
The survey showed that 85% of respondents expected legacy processes to create scalability problems as business activity expands. Among organizations involved with digital assets, 59% said these assets generated disproportionately higher operational complexity compared with traditional asset classes.
Data integration and compatibility were identified as the leading operational challenge by 41% of respondents. Companies also reported that manual procedures and spreadsheet-based work consumed 15.9% of their operational budgets through rework.
AI adoption was widespread, with 98% of respondents saying their organizations used AI in at least one area of operations. However, only 14% had integrated the technology throughout their operational functions. These findings highlight technology and process weaknesses rather than questions over regulatory jurisdiction.
A market-structure law can establish classifications, obligations and supervisory boundaries, but it cannot automatically connect fragmented databases, eliminate manual procedures or synchronize records across a firm’s technology infrastructure.
CLARITY Act Includes Some Infrastructure Provisions
The legislation does address certain operational matters. Section 305 would allow brokers, dealers, transfer agents, investment advisers, investment companies and national securities exchanges to use blockchain records to meet existing recordkeeping requirements, subject to SEC rules that would need to be issued within 180 days of enactment.
Section 402 would require futures commission merchants to place customer digital assets with qualified digital-asset custodians. The congressional summary also includes provisions dealing with recordkeeping and restrictions on commingling customer assets.
These measures target specific custody and recordkeeping requirements rather than the broader data-management and workflow problems identified in the AutoRek survey.
If enacted, the CLARITY Act would create a statutory framework for digital commodities, registration and the respective responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC. It would also establish requirements and rulemaking processes covering custody, disclosures, recordkeeping and market intermediaries.
However, the legislation would not by itself resolve the scalability, data-integration and manual-rework issues confronting capital-markets operations teams. Regulatory reform and operational modernization can move forward at the same time, but they remain separate challenges that require different solutions.
