Bitwise CIO: "<i>GENIUS Act</i>" Has Driven Crypto Fundraising, "<i>CLARITY Act</i>" Could Be the Next Key Catalyst

BlockBeats News, May 13th - Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that recently, three blockchain projects in the stablecoin and asset tokenization space, Arc by Circle, Canton Network, and Stripe-backed Tempo, have raised over $1 billion in total, reflecting three structural changes occurring in the crypto industry. Hougan pointed out that firstly, institutional demand for on-chain privacy is increasing. Arc, Canton, and Tempo all emphasize native transaction privacy, unlike the default public transparency of blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. He believes that for enterprise fund flows, payroll, and other scenarios, fully public on-chain data could be a burden, hence institutions are driving towards more privacy-focused blockchain infrastructure suited for financial operations.

Secondly, he mentioned that with the passage of the U.S. "GENIUS Act" in July 2025, breaking the regulatory gridlock that previously stifled institutional funding, institutional capital has rapidly entered the stablecoin and tokenization space. He stated that the next key catalyst in the current market is the "CLARITY Act," which if passed, could further drive the development of tokenization and compliant financial infrastructure.

Furthermore, Hougan noted that traditional financial giants are accelerating their entry into on-chain infrastructure competition. For example, Canton is supported by institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Citadel, DTCC, Nasdaq; Tempo has the participation of Stripe, Visa, OpenAI; and Arc is driven by USDC issuer Circle. However, he does not believe that traditional institutions will replace the crypto-native ecosystem but rather sees the new competition raising industry standards overall and attracting more capital into the blockchain and tokenization market.