Chris Perkins, managing partner at CoinFund, argued publicly this week that the cryptocurrency industry does not require a pass Digital Asset Market Clarity Act to maintain its operational and investment trajectory, a position that is in direct opposition to the prevailing industry position of treating legislative certainty as a prerequisite for sustainable institutional engagement. Perkins cited a joint interpretation issued in March 2026 by SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Michael Selig on the application of federal securities laws to cryptoassets as evidence that agency-level guidance already provides the taxonomic and structural clarity that the market has long demanded.
“These guys are creating policy and precedent every day,” Perkins said, adding that if the Clarity Act fails to advance, “we’ll be fine.”
We believe Perkins’ public positioning also serves a secondary function, signaling to CoinFund’s limited partners and potential portfolio companies that the fund’s investment activity will not be conditional on legislative outcomes that remain uncertain in terms of timing and form.
Photo: Chris Perkins
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The Legislative Landscape for the Clarity Act: Where the bill stands and what it would define
Discussing digital assets policy in Washington For more than two years, I have focused on the issue of how jurisdiction is determined between the SEC and the CFTC over digital assets, a question that agency-level guidance has partially addressed but that the statute has yet to resolve.
The CLARITY Act, in its current form, would create a formal framework for classifying digital assets as securities or commodities, designate primary regulatory jurisdiction accordingly, and create compliance pathways for issuers and exchanges that do not currently exist under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or the Commodity Exchange Act. The bill would also address DeFi protocol processing, revenue-generating arrangements, and the conditions under which digital assets transition from security to commodity status when the network becomes decentralized.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott has indicated that the bill is close to making it to committee markup in May 2026, calling it “in the red,” but unified Republican support has not been assured within the committee, and the broader legislative timeline remains contingent on competing fiscal priorities.
Provisions addressing DeFi token processing and ring-fencing production It has attracted specific scrutiny from members who view the scope of the bill as either too broad or insufficient to protect retail participants. The mechanism works as follows: In the absence of statutory demarcation, the SEC and CFTC operate under their existing enabling legislation, with the March 2026 Joint Interpretation providing interagency coordination on classification matters but providing no legally binding safe harbor for issuers or platforms.
🇺🇸 NOW: Polymarket gives the CLARITY Act a 63% chance of being signed into law in 2026. pic.twitter.com/k3COsRDphX
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) May 4, 2026
It is worth noting, Coinbase declined to support an earlier draft of the CLARITY Actciting concerns about specific provisions — an indication that even major local players in the cryptocurrency infrastructure space have reservations about the current structure of the bill. Perkins’s position, although distinct in its framing, is not without communion in the institutional sector of the industry.
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Daniel Francis is a technical writer and Web3 educator specializing in macroeconomics and DeFi mechanics. A crypto native since 2017, Daniel brings his background in cross-chain analytics to author evidence-based reports and detailed guides. It is certified by the Blockchain Council and is dedicated to providing “information gain” that cuts through the market noise to find blockchain’s real-world utility.
