Free Markets and Innovation, Sort Of

OpinionFree Markets and Innovation, Sort OfThe Journal’s editorial board rejects crypto competition and instead misinterprets Clarity, a pro-innovation, pro-competition, and pro-consumer bill, argues the Blockchain Association's Summer Mersinger.By Summer Mersinger|Edited by Cheyenne Ligon Aug 6, 2026, 11:30 a.m. 4 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on The Wall Street Journal's Aug. 4 editorial on the Clarity Act, "Clarity for Crypto, Sort Of," opens by warning that Congress passes bills riddled with policy landmines because members won't do the work of defusing them. That’s a fair worry in general, but it doesn’t apply here. The editorial concedes more than the headline suggests. It credits the bill with ending the regulatory gray zone the last administration left behind, with giving investors and banks rules a future administration cannot simply discard, and with opening a path for innovations like tokenized stocks and bonds that would strip friction and cost out of the financial system. All of that, in the board's own assessment, is worth supporting. The board is not calling to reject Clarity, but for tighter language on a few provisions.Summer Mersinger is CEO of the Blockchain Association and a former commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.RewardsStart with what the bill actually forbids. Payment for merely holding a stablecoin is prohibited. So is any program that ends up economically or functionally equivalent to interest on a bank deposit – and the text attaches penalties to the attempt. That test is the whole provision, and the editorial's warning about rewards paid to customers for holding stablecoins falls inside it.What the text does permit is rewarding a customer for activity, so long as the reward isn't equivalent to a bank deposit. Credit card and loyalty programs have operated on that principle for decades without causing risk to the banking system. …

Free Markets and Innovation, Sort Of

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