Andreessen Horowitz general partner Chris Dixon says the U.S. has reached a decision point on blockchain infrastructure, arguing that Congress should pass the CLARITY Act after the GENIUS Act showed how clear rules can expand crypto markets rather than shut them down.
In the article, written by Dixon and translated by TechFlow, he compares the current moment for blockchain networks with the internet buildout of the 1990s. His argument is that policymakers then chose to create rules that allowed innovation to grow while protecting consumers, and that the U.S. now faces a similar choice with blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
Dixon says stablecoins make payments faster and cheaper, while tokenization is modernizing capital markets, and both depend on blockchain rails. He adds that these technologies will keep moving whether Congress acts or not, leaving the U.S. to decide whether it will set the standards or give that ground to others.
GENIUS Act showed what regulatory clarity can do
Dixon describes stablecoins as digital dollars that can move across the internet as easily as bitcoin. He gives a practical example: sending $200 from the U.S. to Colombia through traditional channels can cost more than $12 and take several days, while the same transfer with stablecoins can settle in seconds for just a few cents.
He says uncertainty had held back stablecoin adoption for years, and that the GENIUS Act changed that by introducing reserve requirements and a framework for issuers.
The results, in his telling, are already visible. The stablecoin market is now about $315 billion, up more than 50% from a year ago. Dollar-backed tokens, he writes, have become one of the fastest-growing channels for U.S. currency abroad. Citing Visa data, he says stablecoins processed $100 trillion in transaction volume over the past 12 months.
Dixon also points to deeper involvement from major institutions, including JPMorgan, Citigroup, Visa, Mastercard and BlackRock. His conclusion is that clear rules are helping anchor this emerging system in U.S. standards and institutions rather than in competing alternatives.
Blockchain networks still lack a coherent federal framework
Even so, Dixon says the GENIUS Act addressed only part of the problem. Stablecoins account for less than 15% of the crypto market by market value, he writes, while the underlying blockchain networks that support the other 85% still do not have a coherent federal framework.
He frames that mismatch as regulating smartphones while ignoring cellular networks. In his view, that is the gap the CLARITY Act is meant to close.
At the center of the bill, according to Dixon, is a set of clear rules for blockchain networks and a definition of regulatory responsibilities across digital asset markets. He says the proposal would promote transparency, reduce risk and support competition under a shared standard.
Dixon writes that the bill would also allow regulators to supervise intermediaries using long-established principles from traditional finance, including proper custody, segregation of customer assets and full disclosure. He argues that those safeguards would help prevent another FTX disaster and open the door to the next wave of institutional adoption.
Large financial firms are already building on blockchain
To support that case, Dixon lists several examples. BlackRock has launched a tokenized fund. JPMorgan is building a blockchain-based payments system. DTCC, which he says safeguards $114 trillion in assets, is preparing to scale tokenized securities through the Canton Network.
His view is that the CLARITY Act would remove barriers to entry and give traditional finance a clearer compliant path into digital asset markets. He says the effect would not be limited to crypto companies, but would also matter for consumers, investors and the long-term competitiveness of U.S. capital markets.
Dixon says the U.S. is choosing between certainty and uncertainty
Dixon argues that history shows the most value is created on open and neutral platforms governed by clear rules. He says the internet succeeded because founders understood the rules of the road, could raise capital and build products without having to guess how regulation would be applied. Blockchain networks, he argues, should get the same chance.
He rejects the idea that regulation and innovation are inherently at odds, pointing again to the period after the GENIUS Act. In the second half of 2025, after the law was signed, more than $13 billion flowed into crypto startup investment, nearly double the $6.9 billion invested in the first half of that year before GENIUS, according to the figures cited in the article. The piece also says forecasts point to tokenized asset markets growing 100x in the coming years.
Dixon adds that no law is perfect, and says the same is true of the CLARITY Act. Still, he argues that crypto currently has no consumer protections, while CLARITY would put those protections in place. He describes the latest version as the product of months of bipartisan negotiations and major compromises from the industry, and says that despite its imperfections, it is clearly better than leaving the market without safeguards.
He closes by saying that the decision Congress makes this year will determine where the next era of financial infrastructure is built and who writes the rules. If the CLARITY Act passes, he argues, the U.S. can lead again as it did in the era of the commercial internet. If it does not, innovation will move elsewhere and develop under frameworks designed by others.