French Hill says SEC and CFTC crypto rules are no substitute for the CLARITY Act

Overview

Rep. French Hill has a message for crypto's regulators: thanks for the effort, but it isn't enough. The Arkansas Republican, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview that recent SEC and CFTC moves on digital assets fall short of what a real law would deliver.

Hill's Concerns

Hill's core complaint is durability. Agencies can write rules, and agencies can rewrite them. A statute is a different animal. He framed congressional action as a 'permanent law change', in contrast to agency policies that can be reversed.

Uncertainty and Fragmentation

Hill argued that regulatory policy is exposed to whoever controls the executive branch. A new administration can bring new priorities, and with them, new rules for the same industry. He also pointed out that the SEC and CFTC have floated different approaches depending on which part of the digital asset market is involved. Those proposals, Hill said, still don't deliver the clarity and stability the industry needs to grow.

Impact on the Market

Without a statute like the CLARITY Act, firms may keep facing uncertainty over compliance and day-to-day operations. The segment-by-segment approach Hill described raises a separate concern. If the SEC and CFTC each handle different slices of the market in different ways, the result could be fragmented standards rather than one coherent rulebook.