French Hill Says SEC and CFTC Crypto Rules Still Need Congress

Washington’s crypto regulators are moving, but French Hill says they still cannot finish the job Congress left undone.

The House Financial Services Committee chairman argued that recent action from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission is no substitute for a permanent market-structure law. In an interview summarized by Decrypt, Hill credited both agencies for using their existing authority while warning that the resulting framework remains fragile.

That is the core fight now. Regulators can define terms, grant exemptions and write rules.

A future administration can reverse course, and courts can narrow what agencies are allowed to do. A statute is harder to unwind.

Hill’s concern is that the agency-built pieces remain vulnerable to litigation and political turnover. Businesses may receive useful direction today without knowing whether the same boundaries will survive the next administration or the next court challenge.

The agencies are not standing still.

The CFTC has opened a public-comment process on how crypto transactions and markets should be regulated. That work could shape federal oversight of exchanges and digital commodities even while Congress remains stuck.

.@CFTC Seeks Public Comment on Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Relating to Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets: https://t.co/0RFFzG0MPp

— CFTC (@CFTC) October 5, 2026

The SEC has also pursued its own crypto initiatives, including clearer treatment for digital assets, custody proposals and relief aimed at tokenized securities. Together, those moves are creating a working federal framework in pieces.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong welcomed the CFTC’s latest step and thanked Chairman Mike Selig for opening the process:

Great to see the CFTC moving forward on rulemaking for crypto, opening up the public comment period. Thank you @ChairmanSelig for your leadership. https://t.co/1p37bcX7SP

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) October 5, 2026

Why Hill still wants the CLARITY Act.

Hill’s objection is not that the agencies are doing nothing. It is that administrative action cannot settle the central questions with the same durability as legislation.

The CLARITY Act is designed to draw jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC and establish a federal structure for much of the digital-asset market. The Senate failed to advance it in a 49-50 procedural vote last month, leaving regulators to build what they can from existing law.

In an official statement after that vote, Hill and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson said only Congress can provide the lasting legal certainty consumers and businesses need. They also pledged to keep working with regulators until lawmakers can send a framework to the White House.

Hill told Fox Business that SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Mike Selig have used regulatory power and exemptive relief to give digital assets more definition. But he said those policies still fall short of a legislative solution and repeated his hope that Congress can act during the narrow lame-duck window.

The practical stakes for crypto companies.

For exchanges, token issuers and investors, the difference is more than academic. Agency rules can improve the operating environment now, but firms making long-term decisions still have to price in political turnover, lawsuits and overlapping jurisdiction.

A durable law would not eliminate every dispute. It would, however, give regulators a clearer mandate and companies a firmer basis for deciding where a token belongs, which platform rules apply and how customer assets must be handled.

The industry is therefore running on two tracks. It can participate in the SEC and CFTC rulemaking processes today while continuing to push Congress for a statutory framework tomorrow.

Hill’s message is that the first track matters, but it cannot replace the second.

For now, U.S. crypto policy is advancing one agency action at a time. Whether that becomes a stable rulebook still depends on Congress.

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