FIT21 Act: US Crypto Market Structure Bill

The official text states that the Act’s purpose was to provide for a system of regulation of digital assets by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The bill’s short title was the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act.

Congress.gov’s summary describes FIT21 as a proposed regulatory framework for digital assets. Under that framework, the CFTC would regulate digital assets as commodities if a related blockchain was functional and decentralized, and the CFTC would receive exclusive authority over cash or spot digital commodity markets. The SEC would regulate digital assets as securities when the related blockchain was functional but not decentralized. The summary also notes proposed exemptions from certain SEC requirements and joint CFTC-SEC rulemaking.

• Digital commodity markets: FIT21 would have created a CFTC certification process for listing and trading digital commodities and registration rules for digital commodity exchanges. The bill text also recognized multiple registrations for platforms operating in more than one regulated capacity.
• Digital asset offers and sales: The bill would have established rules for transactions involving certain digital assets, including restricted digital assets and digital commodities, with conditions tied to issuer conduct, holding periods, and decentralization certification.
• Certification and SEC review: FIT21 would have allowed certifications related to decentralized systems and digital commodities, while giving the SEC processes to review, rebut, and appeal certain certifications.
• Intermediary registration: The bill would have created registration and regulatory requirements for digital commodity brokers and dealers, including capital and operational standards.
• Custody and customer protection: FIT21 included provisions on qualified digital commodity custodians, cybersecurity, business continuity, segregation, and treatment of customer property.
• DeFi and self-custody: The text included rulemaking instructions and protections related to lawful self-custody, while also identifying certain decentralized finance activities that would not trigger intermediary registration solely by reason of those activities, subject to anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority.

H.R. 4763 moved through House committee action in 2024, was reported by the Agriculture and Financial Services committees, and passed the House on May 22, 2024. On September 9, 2024, it was received in the Senate and referred to Senate Banking. No later enactment action appears on the Congress.gov tracker.

Editors should distinguish FIT21 from later market-structure proposals. In the 119th Congress, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, H.R. 3633, also known as the CLARITY Act, became the related House-passed successor proposal. That later bill should be linked as a related law profile if an internal Crypto Laws entry exists.