Franklin Templeton has endorsed the Clarity Act, joining BlackRock, Fidelity and Goldman Sachs in backing the proposed legislation that would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets. The asset manager's support, announced via X on July 27, expands the roster of Wall Street institutions backing the bill.
The Clarity Act aims to clarify which federal regulator has jurisdiction over different classes of cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The bill proposes assigning the Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight of most digital commodities while granting the Securities and Exchange Commission authority over tokens that meet the definition of securities. The legislation has faced competing regulatory claims between the two agencies for years as the crypto market grew without settled legal classification.
Franklin Templeton, which manages roughly $11 trillion in assets, operates a blockchain division that issued tokenized Treasury funds in 2023. BlackRock and Fidelity, which combined manage more than $20 trillion, have made similar moves into crypto infrastructure in recent years, with BlackRock filing for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in 2023 and Fidelity launching digital asset custody services.
Goldman Sachs, through its institutional clients, has increased exposure to crypto trading and lending operations following regulatory uncertainty that had forced the bank to wind down a cryptocurrency trading desk in 2021. The four firms represent some of the largest pools of institutional capital in the United States.
The backing comes as Senate leadership works toward a legislative window before the August recess. The Clarity Act has circulated in various forms since 2022 without passage, facing resistance from representatives of both regulated agencies and disagreement among crypto stakeholders over which assets belong in which regulatory column. The bill's sponsors have not announced a formal vote date.
In 2022, when similar-scale firms backed stablecoin legislation, congressional committees accelerated hearings. No comparable coordinated push from this tier of institutional investors has emerged on other pending crypto bills.
The next test is whether Senate Banking Committee leadership schedules a mark-up session in August. If the four firms continue coordinating public statements, the legislative pace could accelerate before the recess window closes.
