1inch lawyer sees SEC, CFTC and Treasury driving US crypto rules as midterms unfold
Key Takeaways
- •The midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress, could influence the fate of the stalled CLARITY Act crypto market-structure bill.
- •Maylea Ma of 1inch expects the SEC, CFTC, and Treasury Department, rather than lawmakers, to produce the most significant US crypto regulatory developments over the next few years.
- •Ma argued that increased agency engagement cannot substitute for legislation, since only a statute can withstand changes in government.
- •D3 co-founder Michael Ho said clear rules written into law are required to attract institutional capital to tokenized real-world assets such as real estate and government debt.
- •Regulators have acted while the legislative track stalls, with the SEC proposing a crypto fundraising framework in August and the CFTC submitting a regulatory plan for White House review on September 17, two days after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act.
With voting underway in the United States midterm elections — contests deciding every House seat and roughly a third of the Senate, with control of Congress at stake — Maylea Ma, deputy general counsel at decentralized finance protocol 1inch, said she expects federal agencies to drive the next phase of crypto regulation.
The election outcome could reshape the path forward for the stalled CLARITY Act, but Ma said that "real movement" in US digital-asset regulation over the next few years will come from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Treasury Department, rather than from Congress. The SEC enforces federal securities laws, the CFTC oversees futures and derivatives markets, and the Treasury shapes financial policy — remits that together cover the main regulatory touchpoints for crypto firms operating in the US.
According to Ma, those agencies have been increasingly engaging with crypto projects. However, agency engagement does not provide the stability the industry had hoped to secure through legislation.
"The long-term goal, of course, remains a statute that cannot be reversed every time a government changes," Ma said.
That uncertainty also matters to institutional investors, according to Michael Ho, co-founder of D3, the team behind the Doma Protocol. The tokenized real-world assets Ho referenced are traditional holdings such as real estate or government debt, represented as blockchain tokens — a category he tied directly to rules written into law.
"With the market structure bill stalled, US crypto policy continues to rest on agency guidance that a future administration can reverse, and that keeps serious capital waiting," Ho said. "Whatever the result, clear rules written into law are what will bring institutional capital into tokenized real-world assets."
The remarks come amid a string of recent regulatory developments that show agencies moving ahead while the legislative track remains stalled. In August, the SEC proposed a framework for crypto fundraising, including exemptions for certain token offerings and a safe harbor from treatment as investment contracts. In September, the agency also updated staff guidance covering token buybacks, crypto networks and staking receipt tokens.
The CFTC, meanwhile, submitted a crypto market regulatory plan for White House review on Sept. 17, two days after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act. How that review concludes, and whether the bill regains momentum once the next Congress convenes, are the next developments to watch on the path from agency guidance to statute.
