Senate Seeks to Combat Rising Crypto Scams with CLARITY Act

Cryptocurrency scams have become one of the fastest-growing forms of fraud in the US, disproportionately affecting older Americans and rural families.

The Senate is considering the CLARITY Act to establish clear regulations for digital assets and combat fraud. The bill defines regulatory roles for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and creates a public-private task force to help law enforcement track and prosecute digital-asset crimes.

Senator Jerry Moran has championed this legislation, which forms a public-private task force on fraud, raises funding for state and local crypto investigations, sets up training for police and prosecutors, and adds targeted measures aimed at elder fraud and crypto-ATM scams. The bill passed the House in a lopsided bipartisan vote 294 to 134 last year.

Kansas has a direct stake in this legislation, with Senator Moran teaming with Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin on the SAFE Crypto Act, which aims to stand up a public-private task force to track and prosecute digital-asset fraud. The updated CLARITY Act now moving through the Senate contains exactly that kind of muscle.

The bill's passage is uncertain, with the Senate having only days before it leaves Washington for its August recess. If the bill does not clear the floor before the break, its momentum likely stalls into next year, when a midterm election makes every complicated bill harder to pass.