Don’t let perfect be the enemy of Clarity
Summer Mersinger, former CFTC commissioner, argues for the passage of the Clarity Act to establish clear regulatory jurisdiction over digital asset spot markets. She contends that the bill provides essential safeguards, such as asset segregation and disclosure requirements, to prevent future financial collapses like FTX.
Why it matters
The lack of clear regulatory authority over crypto spot markets remains a significant hurdle for institutional adoption and consumer protection in the United States.
When FTX collapsed in November 2022, I was a sitting commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. I watched as the government discovered billions of dollars of misappropriated customer funds. Reporters asked, again and again, what the CFTC could have done. The honest answer was: not enough. The Commission had anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority, but Congress had never given it explicit jurisdiction over digital asset spot markets. This gap is still open today, which means the protections Congress extends to existing securities and commodities still don't cover the majority of the types of digital assets.
Nearly four years later, we still haven’t solved this problem.
Summer Mersinger is CEO of the Blockchain Association and a former commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
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