Yellow Network chairman Alexis Sirkia says the CLARITY Act is the structural reset U.S. crypto has waited for.
Summary
- Sirkia argues the bill creates the first navigable framework around classification, jurisdiction, and compliance for crypto firms.
- Years of regulatory uncertainty pushed builders to Dubai and Singapore, and the CLARITY Act could reverse that flow if it passes.
- Success, Sirkia says, means founders launching U.S. products without fear of retroactive enforcement years down the line.
The CLARITY Act is moving faster than at any point in its legislative history. The Senate Banking Committee released a new 309-page draft on May 12, with a markup scheduled for May 14, as the White House pushes for Trump to sign the legislation before July 4. For Alexis Sirkia, chairman and co-founder of Yellow Network, the timing is overdue.
“A lot of crypto companies have spent years trying to figure out which regulator they answer to and whether the rules might suddenly change after they launch,” Sirkia said. “That uncertainty affects everything from fundraising to banking relationships to hiring.”
Why builders left and what changes if the bill passes
At Yellow, which builds decentralized clearing infrastructure for digital assets, Sirkia deals daily with the friction that regulatory ambiguity creates across liquidity, settlement, and compliance. His view is that most serious builders are not looking for a free pass from oversight. They are looking for predictability.
“Infrastructure companies cannot scale globally if the rules change every few months or if nobody knows how existing laws apply to decentralized systems,” Sirkia said.
He points to the CLARITY Act’s provisions around disclosure standards, AML requirements, and oversight structures as the foundations that allow companies to make long-term decisions around capital and hiring.
If the bill passes, Sirkia expects founders and engineering talent to remain in the U.S. rather than default to easier regulatory environments. “Right now, a lot of companies choose places like Dubai or Singapore because the regulatory path is simply easier to understand,” he said. “If uncertainty continues, the U.S. risks missing out on a major infrastructure shift happening across finance and digital assets.”
The CLARITY Act passed the House 294 to 134 in July 2025 and cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee in January 2026, but has repeatedly stalled in the Banking Committee over stablecoin yield provisions and unresolved ethics language around government officials’ crypto holdings.
The bar for success and the global race
Senator Bernie Moreno has set a hard end-of-May deadline, warning that missing the window could shelve the legislation for years. Prediction markets currently put the odds of the Act becoming law in 2026 at around 55%.
Sirkia’s definition of success is direct. He wants founders launching products in the U.S. without fear of retroactive enforcement, and banks treating crypto infrastructure as a legitimate counterparty rather than a compliance liability.
“I’d also like to see a healthier relationship between regulators and industry participants overall,” he said. “Crypto will move faster when there’s dialogue and clearer communication.”
On the global picture, Sirkia sees the CLARITY Act as a signal as much as a rulebook. “I see the CLARITY Act as an important signal the U.S. wants to play a serious role in the future of digital finance,” he said. “That matters for everything from stablecoins to tokenized assets to next-generation trading infrastructure.”
Yellow Network, which tapped the XRPL EVM Sidechain to power real-world asset trading, is among the firms watching the May 14 markup closely. If the CLARITY Act advances, Sirkia says expanding compliant decentralized clearing and trading infrastructure inside the U.S. market becomes the immediate priority.
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