French Hill (프렌치 힐), chair of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, said regulatory steps by financial authorities alone would make it hard to create stability and again stressed the need for the Clarity Act.

On Oct. 7, Cointelegraph reported that Hill said in a Fox Business interview that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are working to refine digital asset regulation, but their efforts are not enough to replace the Clarity Act, which failed to pass the Senate last month.

The key issue is the difference in weight between regulators' actions and congressional legislation. The SEC and the CFTC are each pushing ahead with rulemaking that addresses multiple areas of crypto oversight and enforcement. Hill said such responses fall short of a legislative solution.

Hill left open the possibility it could be handled before the end of the congressional session. He also said the United States needs permanent legal changes to maintain its No. 1 position in digital assets and blockchain technology.

Legislative conditions are tight. Hill said the Senate has only 22 session days between the November U.S. midterm elections and the launch of a new Congress in 2027. That period is known as a lame-duck session, and lawmakers' voting decisions can shift depending on election results. He said positions for or against the Clarity bill could change once re-election or retirement is settled.

Leadership vacancies at regulators also remain a variable. Commissioner Hester Peirce said last week she intends to resign from the SEC, leaving only Chair Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda at the agency. At the CFTC, Michael Selick is both chair and the only commissioner.

The heads of the two agencies recently disclosed plans to keep pushing ahead with crypto regulation under instructions from U.S. President Donald Trump. Hill's remarks came as such moves by the administration and regulators continued. It again highlighted Congress' concern that rulemaking alone would be insufficient to remove market uncertainty.

A key point to watch is whether an actual vote takes place during the lame-duck session. Regulators are continuing to craft administrative rules, but concerns have continued that, without a law covering the overall market structure, the direction could shift with changes in the administration or commission makeup. Against that backdrop, whether the Clarity bill can clear the Senate again before year-end is expected to be the next watershed for institutionalising crypto in the United States.