The Senate recently entered its August recess without voting on the CLARITY Act, pushing the legislation into September and leaving its prospects for passage this year uncertain.
The delay weakened investor sentiment, with Bitcoin trading around $64,000 as the Senate stalled the bill before falling from roughly $65,000 to about $62,500 later in the week as uncertainty over the rules weighed on the market.
The bill is not dead, however; Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on August 8, putting the CLARITY Act on track for a procedural vote when lawmakers return on September 15.
But filing cloture does not mean it will get the votes to advance because Republicans hold 53 Senate seats and would need at least seven Democrats to reach the 60 required votes. Furthermore, disagreements between the two groups over stablecoin rewards, ethical provisions, and other sections of the proposal remain unresolved.
While Washington is still working through legislation that could determine how digital assets fit into the U.S. financial system, banks and exchanges are building products that could make blockchain part of mainstream finance.
Institutions Are Building Around Crypto
Institutions are building around crypto, with tokenization coming out as one of the clearest examples as banks and market operators develop the products and rails to support a wider digital-asset market.
Citi estimates that tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030, as banks and market operators look to put everything from equities to Treasuries on-chain.
In July, DTCC and other financial institutions successfully processed U.S. trades using tokenized securities in a live production environment, and the firm has plans to launch its own tokenization service in October.
Nasdaq has been developing an equity token design that would allow public companies to issue tokenized shares while preserving existing ownership rights and regulatory systems.
Banks are also building on the same rails, and J.P. Morgan’s JPM Coin deposit token is already available to its institutional clients on Base. Citi also launched tokenized depositary receipts representing private-company shares and is combining tokenized deposits with 24/7 cross-border payment services.
Stablecoins are also becoming more popular among banks for payments, treasury management and cross-border settlements. Citi predicts that stablecoin issuance could get to $1.9 trillion by 2030, while tokenized bank deposits could support as much as $100 trillion to $140 trillion in annual flows.
US regulatory uncertainty continues to weigh on crypto prices, but institutional activity around tokenized securities, stablecoins, custody and settlement shows that investors are positioning for the financial system that could develop around digital assets, not simply the next move in Bitcoin.
Europe Could Capture the Next Phase While Africa Uses the Rails
Europe already has a framework through MiCA that gives crypto companies and investors a set of rules around issuance, trading and market services. The European Central Bank is also working on ways for DLT-based transactions to settle using central bank money.
That gives European financial institutions a much clearer path to test tokenized securities, funds and settlement systems while U.S. lawmakers continue negotiating its own framework.
If institutional investors continue to build stablecoin and settlement infrastructure, African businesses, on the other hand, could get faster payment rails and cheaper cross-border transactions.
This is because the region already relies on crypto heavily for cross-border transfers, dollar access, and payments. But as the institutional infrastructure surrounding stablecoins grows, they could see more use, particularly for businesses that have to deal with broken banking systems and costly international transfers.
How far that goes will depend on regulation, as markets like Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa are still figuring out how stablecoins, exchanges and cross-border crypto flows fit into existing financial rules.
In Nigeria, for instance, the country received about $59 billion in crypto inflows between July 2023 and June 2024, with stablecoins accounting for more than 65% of crypto inflows in 2024, while its central bank is developing a regulatory sandbox for virtual assets.
This creates a ready market for US banks and financial institutions building stablecoin and settlement infrastructure.
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