U.S. financial regulators are moving ahead with targeted crypto measures after the Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act, giving institutions potential new routes into tokenized securities, stablecoins and regulated trading venues without resolving the country’s long-running market-structure debate.
A research note led by JPMorgan managing director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency could reduce some near-term barriers for banks and other financial firms. Yet the measures would remain less durable than legislation, since agency policies can be revised or withdrawn by future administrations.
The Senate’s decision not to move the Clarity Act forward last month has pushed expectations for a comprehensive federal crypto framework further out, according to the note. JPMorgan’s analysts said the bill is unlikely to pass this year and could return to the congressional agenda in 2027.
That leaves market participants watching regulators for incremental changes that can shape how digital assets are issued, held, traded and accounted for in the United States.
Sec explores tokenized stock framework
The SEC last month issued a five-year “Innovation Exemption” connected to tokenized stocks, JPMorgan said. The framework would provide a route for qualifying tokens tied to publicly traded shares, though the terms described by the analysts set boundaries around the type of products that can use it.
A token would need to carry the same financial and voting rights as the underlying share, according to the JPMorgan note. That condition would exclude synthetic products designed to track a stock’s price without conferring ownership rights. Platforms offering the tokens would also face trading restrictions.
The distinction places the SEC’s initiative closer to a regulated digital form of conventional equity ownership than to the speculative stock-linked tokens that have appeared on offshore crypto platforms. A tokenized share that includes dividends, voting rights and other shareholder entitlements could fit more readily into existing securities rules, while a synthetic version raises different questions around derivatives, custody and market oversight.
Corporate participation remains a practical constraint. Companies can decide not to tokenize their shares, JPMorgan said, although the bank’s analysts observed that more firms have recently chosen to participate.
The note linked that increased interest in tokenized equities with weaker sentiment toward application-focused crypto assets, including ether. JPMorgan said exchange-traded fund flows and futures-positioning indicators for those assets had softened after initially rising following the SEC’s Sept. 15 announcement. The analysts did not provide figures for the changes.
Cftc examines regulated leverage
The CFTC is also examining options that could permit leveraged crypto trading on regulated U.S. platforms, JPMorgan said. The work remains at an early stage, and the analysts said implementation is unlikely before 2027.
Leverage allows traders to take positions larger than the capital they commit, magnifying both gains and losses. Much of that activity has historically concentrated on offshore platforms, where rules, disclosures and margin practices can differ sharply from those governing U.S. futures markets.
A regulated domestic framework for leveraged crypto trading could shift some activity onto U.S. venues, JPMorgan’s analysts wrote. They said that transition could deepen available liquidity and improve price formation, the process through which buyers and sellers establish a market price.
The potential benefit would depend on the eventual rules. Margin requirements, eligible assets, clearing arrangements and retail-access standards would determine whether regulated platforms can compete with established offshore markets without taking on excessive risk.
Occ charters bring stablecoin firms under federal oversight
The OCC has granted national trust charters to an increasing number of stablecoin issuers and digital-asset firms, according to JPMorgan. Those charters place activities including custody, reserve management and issuance within a federal supervisory structure.
National trust charters can give digital-asset companies a more direct connection to the U.S. banking system than state-by-state licensing alone. For stablecoin issuers, federal oversight of reserves and custody could make it easier for counterparties to assess how customer assets are managed.
The approvals also face legal pressure. The Independent Community Bankers of America has sued the OCC over aspects of its charter approvals, JPMorgan said. The litigation adds uncertainty around the scope of the regulator’s authority, even as the charters already issued may be difficult to reverse in practice.
Accounting proposal could broaden stablecoin use
Separate from the market-access initiatives, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is considering whether certain stablecoins could be classified as cash equivalents on corporate balance sheets. The proposal is open for comment until Nov. 19, JPMorgan said.
Cash-equivalent treatment would affect how companies report eligible stablecoin holdings in financial statements. It could make stablecoins more workable for corporate payments, treasury operations and short-term liquidity management, rather than limiting their role largely to crypto trading and settlement.
The proposal would not apply automatically to every token marketed as stable. Any final accounting approach would need to define which reserve structures, redemption rights and risk characteristics meet the standard for cash-equivalent treatment.
Agency-led initiatives now offer the most immediate path for U.S. crypto-market development, but they leave firms operating across a patchwork of securities, commodities, banking and accounting rules. A congressional market-structure law would provide firmer boundaries between regulators and more lasting standards for the businesses trying to build within them.
For deeper insight into evolving U.S. crypto rules, explore how they shape markets in this regulation-focused outlook today.
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