The White House brought together executives from Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Ripple, and Chainlink this week to push a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act through Congress. The Senate’s first procedural vote is scheduled for September 15, and the bill may be dead for the year if it fails there.
Bitcoin does not need the CLARITY Act. Bitcoin does not need the United States. It will keep producing blocks whether Congress passes a market-structure bill, misses the vote, or spends another year arguing about which regulator gets to supervise the crypto casino. CLARITY is far more important to exchanges, stablecoin issuers, token promoters, and the intermediaries surrounding bitcoin than it is to bitcoin itself.
Countries, companies, and individuals still have a choice. They can embrace bitcoin and position themselves to benefit from its success, or reject it and position themselves to miss out. CLARITY may legitimize the casino around bitcoin. Bitcoin was legitimate before Washington arrived.