1inch lawyer sees agencies driving US crypto regulation as midterms unfold

With voting underway in the US midterm elections and control of Congress at stake, Maylea Ma, deputy general counsel at 1inch, said she expects federal agencies to drive the next phase of crypto regulation.

The election could reshape the path forward for the stalled CLARITY Act, but Ma said “real movement” in US digital-asset regulation over the next few years will come from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Treasury, rather than Congress.

Ma said those agencies were increasingly engaging with crypto projects. However, she cautioned that agency engagement does not provide the stability the industry had hoped to secure through legislation.

The agencies have already taken steps in that direction. In August, the SEC proposed a framework for crypto fundraising, including exemptions for certain token offerings and a safe harbor from treatment as investment contracts. In September, it also updated staff guidance covering token buybacks, crypto networks and staking receipt tokens.

The CFTC, meanwhile, submitted a crypto market regulatory plan for White House review on Sept. 17, two days after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act.

“The long-term goal, of course, remains a statute that cannot be reversed every time a government changes,” said Ma.

That uncertainty also matters to institutional investors, according to Michael Ho, co-founder of D3, the team behind Doma Protocol.

“With the market structure bill stalled, US crypto policy continues to rest on agency guidance that a future administration can reverse, and that keeps serious capital waiting,” Ho said.

“Whatever the result, clear rules written into law are what will bring institutional capital into tokenized real-world assets.”