Could a stalled Clarity Act slow crypto dealmaking?

Payward, Kraken’s parent, provides a good example of what’s driving some of those deals.

The company agreed to buy payments company Reap for $600 million and derivatives platform Bitnomial for up to $550 million, while Nasdaq agreed to invest $100 million in Payward alongside an expanded commercial partnership.

Those deals highlight the appetite for licenses, technology and distribution that could sustain activity even as comprehensive U.S. crypto legislation remains stalled.

Clarity still matters

Not everyone thinks regulatory action by the SEC and CFTC can substitute for legislation.

“Clearer legal framework would absolutely result in more deals, more partnerships permeating across financial services and beyond, and ultimately more economic prosperity for both citizens in the U.S. as well as abroad,” Dmitriy Berenzon, partner at venture firm Archetype, said.

“We have already seen how much of a positive impact the GENIUS Act has had on stablecoin adoption, so the more clear and informed the rulemaking, the better,” he added.

Jake Brukhman, founder and CEO of venture capital firm CoinFund, offered a more holistic view of looking at the Clarity Act’s setback: it doesn’t necessarily make the regulatory environment worse. It just means the improvement buyers were hoping for hasn’t arrived.

“Failure of Clarity does not create a new drag so much as preserve the regulatory uncertainty already weighing on the sector,” he said, noting that the impact won’t be the same everywhere.