The CLARITY Act would introduce a regulatory framework for digital assets and define how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission divide oversight. Although the bill addresses registration, supervision, custody and recordkeeping in specific areas, it does not set out how financial firms should reconcile transactions or overhaul outdated back-office infrastructure.
Regulatory certainty and operational modernization are separate challenges. H.R. 3633, introduced by Chairman French Hill on May 29, 2025, aims to establish a broad market-structure framework for digital assets.
Section 401 would give the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over cash and spot transactions involving digital commodities that take place on or through registered digital-commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers. It would also provide an accelerated registration pathway for those businesses.
The SEC would retain authority over fraud and market manipulation involving permitted payment stablecoins and digital commodities traded through SEC-registered entities.
Under Section 304, firms registered with both regulators as digital-commodity exchanges, brokers or dealers would have to implement conflict-of-interest policies. The SEC and CFTC would also be required to establish a memorandum of understanding to coordinate oversight, avoid unnecessary duplication and facilitate information sharing.
The Operational Problems the CLARITY Act Does Not Solve
The bill may clarify who regulates digital assets, but it does not directly address the operational difficulties facing capital-markets back offices. An AutoRek survey of 250 senior operations, finance and technology executives in the U.S. and U.K. pointed to growing pressure from higher transaction volumes, expanding asset classes, fragmented data and limited AI integration.
About 85% of respondents expected legacy systems and processes to create scalability problems as activity increases. Among firms involved in digital assets, 59% said those assets created disproportionately greater operational complexity than other asset classes.
Data integration and compatibility were cited as the top operational challenge by 41% of respondents. Firms also reported that manual processes and spreadsheet-based workflows accounted for 15.9% of operational budgets through rework.
AI adoption was nearly universal among the surveyed firms, with 98% using the technology somewhere in their operations. Yet only 14% had fully integrated AI across their operational functions. These findings point to shortcomings in technology and workflow design rather than regulatory jurisdiction.
A market-structure law can establish asset classifications, compliance obligations and regulatory boundaries, but it cannot by itself connect disconnected systems, eliminate manual processes or ensure that records are reconciled across a company’s infrastructure.
Areas Where CLARITY Addresses Operations
The bill does contain provisions that could affect financial infrastructure. Section 305 would allow brokers, dealers, transfer agents, investment advisers, investment companies and national securities exchanges to use blockchain-based records to satisfy existing recordkeeping requirements, subject to SEC rulemaking within 180 days of enactment.
Section 402 would require futures commission merchants to safeguard customer digital assets through qualified digital-asset custodians. The congressional summary also addresses recordkeeping requirements and the separation of customer assets.
These provisions focus on defined custody and recordkeeping obligations rather than providing a comprehensive answer to the broader data and workflow challenges identified by AutoRek.
If enacted, the CLARITY Act would provide statutory definitions for digital commodities, establish registration requirements and clarify specific areas of SEC and CFTC authority. It would also introduce rules and regulatory processes covering custody, disclosures, recordkeeping and market intermediaries.
But the bill would not independently resolve the scalability pressures, fragmented data or manual rework affecting capital-markets operations. Regulatory clarity can develop alongside technological modernization, but the two require different forms of reform.
