Senate Republicans have released a revised version of the CLARITY Act ahead of its first procedural vote scheduled for September 15.
The revised legislation adds language covering trading protocols that present themselves as decentralized but remain materially controlled by identifiable people or organizations.
Under the proposal, non-DeFi trading protocols would need to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, while the CFTC and Treasury would be directed to develop implementing rules.
The distinction is significant.
One of the hardest regulatory questions surrounding DeFi is determining when software remains genuinely decentralized and when a company, development team or governance group exercises enough control to resemble a conventional financial intermediary.
The Senate vote is only a procedural step, and the legislation still faces political obstacles. It requires sufficient bipartisan support to advance.
The outcome could nevertheless determine whether Congress moves closer to defining the division of authority between securities, commodities and decentralized-finance regulation.
TOKEN RECON ASSESSMENT
The September 15 vote is a process test, not final passage.
The revised language shows lawmakers attempting to distinguish autonomous DeFi from systems where identifiable parties still control key functions.
Watch the definition of control.
That single concept could determine which front ends, governance organizations, developers and trading protocols eventually face registration obligations.
Source: The Block
