For too long, regulatory uncertainty has prevented responsible, yet critical innovation from taking root in the United States. It has been a priority of my chairmanship to reverse this trend. Though temporary, the Innovation Exemption is a principled, structured grant of relief designed to resolve genuine legal uncertainty, while providing investor protections and upholding market integrity standards. Through this order and a number of ongoing initiatives, we will ensure that America remains the world’s premier destination to build the next generation of financial infrastructure.

🚨 TODAY: The SEC issued an order granting temporary, conditional exemptive relief to Tokenized Securities Venues from the definition of “exchange” in the Exchange Act to trade tokenized NMS stock using innovative permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools.

There’s no sense in sugarcoating it: today’s vote was a major disappointment—and, I believe, a failure of American leadership. The full cost of today’s result may not be known for years to come, but this much is clear: it increases the risk that the standards that global financial markets adhere to in the future will be those of Brussels or Beijing, rather than Washington and New York. I want to thank @POTUS for the opportunity to work on this important legislation and for the remarkable concessions he was willing to make to give this bill a chance; @DavidSacks for his wise leadership on not only crypto but all frontier tech policy; and all the Senators and their staffs who devoted countless hours to working on this bill, chief among them @SenLummis who deserved much better than this. Lastly, I also want to thank my colleagues across the administration at Treasury, SEC, and the CFTC. Their partnership helped us find creative solutions to challenging issues throughout this process, and their patience made it possible for us to see it all the way through to a vote. On that last point: @SECPaulSAtkins and @ChairmanSelig, you’re up!

If the DC banking lobby were serious about their deposit flight argument, they would be aggressively whipping Senators, both Republican and Democrat, to get on the bill and then push for changes after. Because if this bill fails, they get none of the protections they claim to desperately need. They haven’t done that. Draw your own conclusions.

I’ve said many times that the CLARITY Act is essential to ensuring America wins the global race for new technology. That’s the reason Congress passed the GENIUS Act: to ensure that stablecoin infrastructure, a revolutionary financial technology, will be built in America. Ensuring that America’s community bank sector continues to thrive has been a constant focus of mine since day one. And the administration’s dual focus on enabling new digital technology to flourish and appropriately tailoring community bank regulation is key to both sectors driving U.S. economic growth together over the next several decades. The final draft of the CLARITY Act furthers this mission. It gives the Secretary of the Treasury additional authority to act if the facts around deposit flight change to the detriment of community banks. If stablecoins cause harm to community banks, I will not hesitate to use these tools to ensure they remain fully protected. Community banks are essential to U.S. economic performance and Main Street growth. Economic security is national security, and community banks play a major role in this principle.

Crypto companies have been offering rewards on stablecoins for years. We don’t need to speculate: If the deposit flight myth were real, it would have already occurred. Instead, data shows bank deposits are going up, not down. Still, the compromise contained in Section 404 of the Clarity Act restricts the payment of stablecoin rewards that mimic interest on bank deposits. The latest draft now also adds a “circuit breaker” granting the Secretary of the Treasury extraordinary authority to further restrict stablecoin rewards in the event the boogeyman of deposit flight materializes. If Clarity fails, banks get none of these protections.

At every step of the way during the Clarity Act negotiations, the White House and Senate Republicans have been responsive to Democrats’ stated policy objectives. After more than a year’s worth of negotiations, it’s time to pass this bipartisan bill.

Ms. Castilla, regarding community bank representation during the negotiations on stablecoin rewards, @ABABankers and @ICBA (both of which your bank appears to be a member of and which you and some of your executives have held leadership roles within) were present at every White House meeting. As you can see in the attached, I also specifically asked both organizations if they had any individual member banks who wanted to attend. I never received a response. After our series of meetings concluded, Senators Tillis and Alsobrooks continued to meet with the ABA and ICBA and also consulted with many community banks individually. It’s concerning to hear that ABA and ICBA did not make you aware that we solicited representatives from individual member banks or keep you informed of the substance of our discussions, especially someone as engaged as you. I would be glad to speak with you at your earliest convenience to remedy this error. The ABA and ICBA both have my contact information.

Respectfully, this framing from Ms. Castilla and other bank lobbyists is misleading. The compromise that Senators Tillis and Alsobrooks reached on the issue of stablecoin rewards *is* the result of collaboration with community banks. Every major bank trade and dozens of individual banks were at the table during the months-long negotiation earlier this year. The changes the banks are demanding now aren’t new ideas. They were considered, and they were rejected. At a time when working across the aisle is increasingly rare in Washington, it’s disappointing to see the banks attack this bipartisan compromise because they didn’t get everything they wanted. (The crypto industry didn’t either.)

Great news. Thank you to our friends at @NationalSheriff for being a valued partner and for working with us throughout this process. The momentum continues to build for the Clarity Act, let’s get it done!