BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has a message for an industry celebrating the CLARITY Act’s progress through Washington: veto it.
Asked in his Coinpedia interview for a realistic timeline on the bill passing and whether it is genuinely good for crypto, Hayes gave a one-sentence answer that puts him sharply at odds with the rest of the industry.
“The CLARITY Act should be vetoed. We don’t need no regulation.”
The response lands at a moment when crypto’s most prominent companies, executives and lobby groups are pushing hard in the opposite direction, treating the bill as the most important piece of legislation in the industry’s history and racing against a calendar that is closing fast.
The CLARITY Act has already cleared the House, passed the Senate Agriculture Committee and has White House support. What remains is the Senate Banking Committee markup, a floor vote, reconciliation and presidential signature.
Senator Moreno has stated publicly that the bill either passes by May or it dies until 2027. Policy analysts in Washington have identified May 21, the Memorial Day recess, as the hard deadline. Once senators leave Washington for the recess, midterm campaign pressures take over. Senators facing re-election have little incentive to champion controversial legislation when they need to be in their home states building support.
If the bill misses the May window it does not simply get delayed. Polymarket currently prices a 49% chance of the CLARITY Act being signed into law this year.
For those watching the deadline without full context, the CLARITY Act makes important changes to how crypto operates in the United States.
It classifies digital assets into three categories: digital commodities such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana falling under CFTC jurisdiction, investment contract assets that can graduate to commodity status once sufficiently decentralised, and stablecoins governed separately under the GENIUS Act.
It also gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over digital commodity spot markets, ending the SEC’s longstanding claim over the entire asset class.
Hayes says veto it. The industry says pass it before May 21. The calendar will determine which argument gets tested.
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