- Matt Hougan puts Clarity Act passage at 80% by early 2026.
- Crypto PACs have raised $263 million for next year, he said.
- The bill would end US regulators’ jurisdictional war over crypto.
Many US crypto executives, investors, and lobbyists are waiting anxiously for passage of a major crypto bill called the Clarity Act.
For Matt Hougan, Bitwise’s chief investment officer, that day is just around the corner.
If so, it would be a major victory for the industry — the Clarity Act has been touted as the most important crypto legislation in US history.
Hougan told DL News that the bill’s passage is nearly certain despite a recent setback that threatened to derail its slow march through Congress. He detailed three factors: political momentum in Washington, unprecedented crypto industry lobbying power, and the support of the Trump administration.
“I’d put it at 80% to get approved by the end of the year or early next year,” Hougan said.
How is he so sure?
“I’m literally hearing that from Washington D.C.,” he said.
The Clarity Act would end years of regulatory chaos by clearly splitting oversight of crypto between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — finally answering one of the industry’s most vexing questions: which regulator has jurisdiction?
$260 million
To get passed, the Clarity Act will need a lot of help from industry groups in Washington D.C.
And according to Hougan, they’ve raised an astonishing war chest.
“Crypto PACs have raised $260 million for 2026,” Hougan told DL News.
While stunning, those figures shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Political action committees can spend unlimited funds to indirectly support political candidates. An example of indirect support includes paying for ads that champion a particular candidate or malign their opponent.
In 2024, crypto PACs raised significant funds. Fairshake, a leading crypto PAC backed by Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz, raised more than $141 million alone.
Moreover, nearly half of all corporate money in the 2024 election cycle came from crypto. That’s more than any other industry, surpassing even oil and gas spending.
Trump’s promises
Alongside funding for lobbying and hearsay in Washington D.C., Hougan pointed to Donald Trump as the third factor that could push the Clarity Act over the edge.
Specifically, Hougan spoke about Paul Atkins’ July 31 speech, where the chairman of the SEC vowed to bring the entire US financial system “onchain.”
“He called it the 4th biggest innovation in US history,” Hougan said. “If you think of how important the move to decimals was, this could be even bigger.”
Decimalisation is the 2001 shift in which the US stock market moved from pricing shares in fractions to pricing in pennies. That seemingly minor change tightened bid-ask spreads, reduced trading costs, and helped democratise investing by making markets more accessible to retail investors.
What it does
The Clarity Act would fundamentally restructure crypto regulation by assigning “digital commodities” like Bitcoin to CFTC jurisdiction and securities tokens to the SEC.
According to proponents, that would end the agencies’ “regulation by enforcement,” in which they would sue crypto companies for purported violations of decades-old laws. The industry has argued those laws are unfit for an entirely new asset class such as crypto.
The bill’s most significant innovation is its treatment of decentralised finance.
Developers who write code, provide non-custodial wallets, or maintain blockchain infrastructure would not be treated as money transmitters — offering legal protection to builders who’ve faced criminal charges despite not holding customer funds, as traditional money transmitting businesses do.
Projects on “mature blockchain systems” that meet decentralisation criteria would face lighter regulations, including fewer reporting requirements and easier exchange listings. The SEC would have 120 days to review applications, while failure to respond allows for self-certification.
Democrat pushback
Despite Hougan’s optimism, the Clarity Act faces significant headwinds in the Senate.
Democrats released a counterproposal in October that would effectively classify every DeFi protocol as a “digital asset intermediary” required to verify customer identities and comply with anti-money laundering regulations.
Additionally, websites offering access to DeFi protocols would need to register as brokers.
Those proposals are motivated in part by some Democrats’ concern that crypto companies are seeking a carveout from existing regulations that protect consumers from scams and high-risk businesses.
“There are a bazillion crypto assets being spun up every day,” Representative Bill Foster of Illinois said. “It seems like a huge potential loophole.”
Pedro Solimano is DL News’ Buenos Aires-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at psolimano@dlnews.com.