Washington is about to hand a single agency responsibility for a trillion-dollar market. Whether that turns out to be a triumph or a debacle depends on whether the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is ready. For years, regulatory uncertainty has hindered the development of the U.S. digital asset industry. Innovation has moved offshore, companies have faced unclear compliance obligations, and consumers have been left without proper protections.
Congress now has an opportunity to change that. The CLARITY Act sits on the Senate Legislative Calendar, eligible for floor consideration after clearing the Senate banking committee in a bipartisan 15-9 vote in May. That is a substantial path to enactment this year, and the Senate should not let it close.
Congress is prepared to entrust the CFTC with one of the most significant expansions of authority in the agency’s history. The CFTC should be treating this moment as the beginning of an institutional transformation.
Capacity will be one of the CFTC’s greatest implementation challenges. The agency’s inspector general identified digital asset regulation as a top management and performance risk for fiscal 2026, warning that an expanded mandate under the CLARITY Act will require additional staff, specialized technical expertise, and new data systems to oversee markets that operate continuously without a central trading venue. The warning came after CFTC staffing declined more than 20% from September 2024 to March 2026, a reduction driven largely by broader federal workforce cuts in 2025 under then-acting Chair Caroline Pham.
To his credit, Chairman Michael Selig has begun rebuilding since taking over the CFTC in December, naming a new enforcement director, adding staff in key offices, and submitting the administration’s fiscal 2027 budget request, which seeks funding for 650 full-time positions. However, that target is still a request, and currently, the agency is only advertising a handful of roles. An agency about to manage decentralized spot-market surveillance for the first time remains far smaller than it was when its mandate was narrower.
The Gemini matter adds another layer of complexity. In late May of this year, the CFTC and Gemini Trust jointly asked a federal court to vacate the January 2025 consent order that imposed a $5 million penalty for allegedly making false statements to the CFTC in connection with a 2017 bitcoin futures contract certification. While the filing is significant, its timing, amid a major expansion of the agency’s authority, warrants congressional attention. The CFTC now concedes that the original complaint relied on an unreliable whistleblower account and involved “inappropriate tactics.”
Whatever the merits of the case, the broader institutional question remains: an agency on the verge of becoming the primary regulator of a multitrillion-dollar asset class is simultaneously disavowing one of its own recent enforcement actions while regulating a company whose founders are close to the current administration, possibly creating an optics problem.
Congress can debate the facts of any individual matter, but it will ultimately be relying on the CFTC’s ability to demonstrate consistency and independence as it considers expanding the agency’s authority.
Then there is the question of governance. The CFTC currently has only one sitting member out of five seats, leaving it without a functioning bipartisan commission. Independent agencies were intentionally structured this way because lasting regulatory authority requires institutional legitimacy, not just statutory power. A CFTC making consequential enforcement and policy decisions with four empty chairs is hardly the foundation Congress should want as it prepares to dramatically expand the agency’s mandate.
These challenges are not an argument for delay. They are an argument for action. The United States cannot afford another year of regulatory uncertainty while other jurisdictions race ahead to establish digital asset regimes. The Senate should clear cloture, reconcile the text, and send the bill to the president’s desk.
But as Congress moves forward, the CFTC must also meet the moment. That means rebuilding the staffing, technical expertise, and systems needed to carry out a mandate that its own inspector general has warned will be substantial. It means demonstrating that fraud and market abuse remain central priorities regardless of political leadership or the company involved. It means addressing controversial enforcement reversals with transparency that strengthens public confidence. And it means filling the four vacant commissioner seats with bipartisan nominees so that an agency entrusted with historic new authority has the institutional legitimacy to match it.
AMERICA’S DIGITAL BLIND SPOT: WHY THE CLARITY ACT IS A NATIONAL SECURITY IMPERATIVE
The digital asset industry has spent too many years caught in the crossfire of political debates. Whether one favors more regulation or less, everyone should support a regulatory framework that is credible, predictable, professionally administered, and durable across administrations.
The CFTC has an extraordinary opportunity here. Congress is prepared to place unprecedented trust in the CFTC by making it America’s primary regulator of digital commodity spot markets. That trust should be met with an equally strong commitment to institutional readiness. Congress should seize this moment, and the CFTC must prove it is ready to meet it.
Adrian Wall is managing director at the Digital Sovereignty Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on advancing responsible policy, research, and education around blockchain, digital assets, Web3, and AI.