The Clarity Act, clarified.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 — “Clarity Act” for short — is the first U.S. federal statute to draw a bright line between digital securities (SEC jurisdiction) and digital commodities (CFTC jurisdiction). It does three things at once.

First, it codifies a definition of “digital commodity” keyed to the maturity and decentralization of the underlying blockchain network. Second, it gives the SEC a streamlined registration path for token offerings via a new Form 1-CR, replacing the awkward case-by-case application of the Howey test that has dominated enforcement since 2017. Third, it grants the CFTC primary spot-market authority over digital commodities — closing a gap that has left the CFTC able to police derivatives but not the underlying assets.

The Clarity Act introduces five terms that will shape every U.S. token memo for the next decade. Two matter more than the others — and they sit on opposite sides of the same line.

The maturity test in plain English

The maturity test has four hard gates. All four must hold continuously for the certification to stick:

• Decentralized validator set. No single validator controls more than 20% of consensus weight.
• Supply concentration. No single holder (or affiliated group) owns more than 20% of circulating supply.
• Market liquidity. Market capitalization above $75M for 30 consecutive trading days, measured across at least three independent venues.
• No admin keys. No multi-sig or governance contract can unilaterally mint, freeze, burn, or pause transfers.

The most-quoted number from the bill is the jurisdictional reshuffle. Today, the SEC brings ~87% of crypto enforcement actions against issuers and exchanges; under the Clarity framework, that share is projected to fall to ~31% as digital commodities migrate to CFTC primary authority.

The Clarity Act compresses what is today an open-ended SEC dance into a seven-step process with hard deadlines. Step through each to see where the legal work actually happens.

The clearest way to feel the shift is to look at who holds the regulatory risk at each layer of a typical token offering. Today, the issuer carries nearly all of it. Under Clarity, the risk gets distributed.

The Clarity Act is the product of a four-year legislative arc that began with FIT21 in 2024. Each step shaped the final compromise.

We expect the practical impact to be felt within 12 months of enactment. Issuers with mature networks (Bitcoin, Ethereum, possibly Solana and a handful of others) will be first in line for digital-commodity certification. The chart below shows our projection for the rebalancing of the U.S.-listed token universe by category.

The unanswered questions

The Clarity Act leaves three issues unresolved that we will be watching closely:

• Stablecoins. The bill explicitly defers stablecoin regulation to a separate framework (the GENIUS Act, pending). Issuers should not assume any read-through.
• NFTs and gaming assets. The maturity test fits poorly for non-fungible assets. The CFTC has indicated it will issue interpretive guidance within 180 days.
• Cross-border treatment. Foreign-issued tokens trading on U.S. venues still face the same offering registration as U.S. issuers — no MRA-style recognition framework has been included.

Disclaimer

This longread is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Token regulation is jurisdiction-specific and fact-specific. For advice on a particular transaction or token offering, please contact Buzko Krasnov directly. All projections are firm estimates and may differ materially from actual outcomes.