Gerald Gallagher

What is the CLARITY Act? How does it protect the 70 million Americans who hold crypto? What does it change about how projects operate? This @LawofCodeFM podcast explains the history of U.S. digital asset regulation, why regulation-by-enforcement failed and what CLARITY solves, plus remaining steps for this to become law. Featured: @NYcryptolawyer, @milesjennings, @SH_Brennan, @KyleBligen, @millercwl, Dugan Bliss and snippets from @BillHughesDC, @thatgerald. By the end of this episode, I promise you'll be in the 99th percentile for understanding the CLARITY Act, regardless of whether you're a lawyer, builder or operator. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 4:46 Explaining market structure 6:05 @milesjennings on regulatory distortion 10:43 Predecessor bills (RFIA, FIT21) 13:35 Senate Banking markup takeaways @millercwl 15:46 SEC & CFTC 20:37 The Securities Act of 1933 23:07 The Howey Test 25:26 @NYcryptolawyer's Ineluctable Modality of Securities Law 28:51 SEC enforcement 32:32 Why SEC rulemaking isn't enough 37:36 Titles of CLARITY 40:00 Digital commodities 47:29 Howey principles @NYcryptolawyer 54:10 Promoters: originators 58:18 Promoters: related persons 1:04:13 Token taxonomy @milesjennings 1:11:02 Ancillary asset requirements 1:19:34 The certification process 1:28:32 Remaining hurdles for CLARITY 1:34:50 Stablecoin yield 1:38:45 Ethics @KyleBligen 1:45:50 Tax consequences @CryptoTaxGuyETH 1:48:54 Thanking people working on the bill, such as @SenLummis, @gillibrandny, @SenatorTimScott, @SenatorHagerty, @SenThomTillis, @MarkWarner, @SenRubenGallego, f , their staffs & many, many others. Nothing in this podcast is legal or investment advice.

🚨NEW: Speaking at the flagship futures industry conference in Boca Raton, FL, @SECPaulSAtkins is laying out more details on the @SECGov and @CFTC’s push for regulatory harmonization. Lots to unpack in this speech: 1. Atkins declared the “regrettable era of duplicative enforcement actions” over, saying the agencies should coordinate legal theories and remedies when pursuing the same conduct. 2. He also floated the idea of “substituted compliance” between the agencies. If one agency’s framework achieves comparable regulatory outcomes, he said, it should be capable of satisfying overlapping requirements of the other. The goal: reduce duplication for companies registered with both. 3. The SEC is launching an SEC-CFTC harmonization webpage where firms can request coordinated discussions with staff from both agencies when launching products or seeking guidance. 4. The regulators will also hold joint meetings on new and pending product applications aimed at speeding up approvals. 5. On prediction markets, Atkins called for cross-agency clarity on event contracts, including whether some could qualify as security-based swaps or other securities. 6. Atkins highlighted cross-margining as a way to unlock liquidity currently stuck in separate accounts across derivatives markets, allowing firms to use the same collateral across related platforms. 7. The agencies are also working on an updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to coordinate exams, supervision, and enforcement for firms regulated by both agencies. Atkins closed with a disclaimer that the coordination doesn’t mean the agencies are merging: “The SEC and the CFTC operate under distinct statutes entrusted to us by Congress, and we must administer those mandates faithfully. But fulfilling our responsibility does not require fragmentation; in fact, it calls for coordination.”