At a glance
- Europe will not benefit from Washington's setback, he told CoinDesk in an interview published Oct. 24, even though its Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation has been in place since July 1.
- The Senate failed to pass the Clarity Act last month, CoinDesk reported.
- Apex services more than $3.5 trillion in assets and operates across 50 jurisdictions.
Apex Group founder and CEO Peter Hughes said the U.S. risks losing digital-asset business to Asia, the Middle East and Bermuda if it keeps delaying crypto legislation. Europe will not benefit from Washington's setback, he told CoinDesk in an interview published Oct. 24, even though its Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation has been in place since July 1.
The Senate failed to pass the Clarity Act last month, CoinDesk reported. The bill would have established federal rules for digital assets and divided oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It fell short of the 60 votes needed in September after disputes over ethics provisions, stablecoin rewards and other regulatory concerns.
Apex services more than $3.5 trillion in assets and operates across 50 jurisdictions. Earlier this month it announced a partnership with droppRWA and Tokeny to help turn real-world assets into regulated blockchain-based investment products, starting in Saudi Arabia. For advisors fielding questions about tokenized private assets, the example to work from sits in the Gulf rather than the U.S., and the due-diligence test it points to is structural: whether each token is tied to the legal record of the asset behind it.
Hughes described MiCA as slow to evolve and restrictive. "I think that the Clarity Act and the delay around that will lead to people finding other solutions elsewhere," he said. Jurisdictions moving quickly, he said, have "the right regimes to really produce the product for the future, and they'll step into this gap."
The SEC and CFTC proposed crypto rules of their own soon after, an attempt to fill the void left by lawmakers' failure to reach consensus, CoinDesk reported. The delay leaves uncertainty over how blockchain-based financial products will be regulated in the world's largest economy, according to the report.
Faisal Monai, CEO and founder of droppRWA, said Saudi Arabia has already made regulatory changes allowing real estate tokenization and greater foreign participation in its property market. What remains, he said, is infrastructure connecting each digital token directly to the legal record of the underlying asset.
For advisors fielding questions about tokenized private assets, the example to work from sits in the Gulf rather than the U.S.
Reported by the Regulation desk from CoinDesk Policy. Published . Corrections