The U.S. crypto market could see an influx of hundreds of billions of dollars within the next 18 months, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen told The Coin Headlines on Friday. The crypto regulatory winds are catching momentum in the U.S., now that its landmark CLARITY Act is closer to reaching President Donald Trump’s desk, which is likely by July 4 this year.
After a brief hiatus, global industry participants have again shifted their focus back to the U.S. market after the Senate Banking Committee successfully completed the markup of the draft CLARITY Act legislation this week.
Chen said BTC and ETH ETFs will now shift into consistent multi-billion-dollar monthly inflows into the U.S. market as the legal uncertainty around crypto narrows. Up until now, regulatory risks were crucial barriers sidelining institutional trillions.
The CLARITY Act, however, has codified BTC and ETH as non-securities exempting the two largest crypto assets from SEC’s strict requirements around reporting and accounting. As per Chen, this will allow large funds to engage with the crypto asset class without having to shell out higher risk premiums and avoid the sector.
“The U.S. is set to reclaim its position as the world’s top capital formation centre for digital assets. April’s $1.97 billion BTC and $356 million ETH inflows signal that the momentum is already building,” the chief of the Seychelles-headquartered exchange said. “While Asia still leads in raw volumes and the EU has MiCA, the US holds unmatched institutional depth via ETFs and venture funding.”
The draft CLARITY Act has laid out comprehensive guidelines to define the status of tokenized real world assets (RWAs). As per a recent CoinGecko report, the valuation of tokenized RWAs more than tripled since last year, hitting $19.3 billion by March 2026.
The latest version of the legislation has proposed that a tokenizing an asset would not change its fundamental legal status. This means, if asset was a security or commodity prior to the tokenization, it would be treated under the same laws after getting an on-chain representation. The aim was to prevent the SEC from using the “act of tokenization” as a reason to deny market and registration access to these assets.
“Tokenized RWAs will attract fresh institutional money through custody platforms growing at 23–29 percent CAGR,” Chen has predicted.
Source: CoinGecko
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. has made major strides in regulating the digital assets sector in what’s touted as the world’s most liquid financial market. Last year, the country passed its GENIUS Act that laid out comprehensive issuance, reserve maintainence, and consumer protection rules for stablecoin players in the country. This year, the CLARITY Act or the crypto market structure bill is expected to go live marking another regulatory milestone for the industry in the U.S.
A major hurdle cleared, one final push remains
The Republican regulators in the States have maintained that better regulatory clarity will prove pivotal in re-shoring Web3 talent which fled seeking greener pastures under former President Joe Biden’s scrutinized approach towards digital assets.
Chen joined this narrative commenting on CLARITY overcoming the markup hurdle on May 14.
“Not just liquidity, passing of the market structure bill will draw talent back from Dubai, Singapore, and Europe over the next 12-24 months back to the U.S.,” she noted. “The stablecoin market cap, currently at $323 billion after 49 percent growth in 2025, will surge higher as US based compliant issuers take clear dominance.”
The crypto market structure bill will now be merged with a companion bill drafted by the Senate Agriculture Committee and head for a full 100-member Senate vote where it would need a 60-vote supermajority to bypass potential hurdles and reach the Oval Office, estimatedly by July 4.
The crypto industry, meanwhile, is celebrating recent developments.
Against the backdrop of CLARITY Act’s progress, BTC briefly touched the $82,000 price point before receding to its present price point of $80,030, as per CoinMarketCap. The overall crypto market valuation stood at $2.66 trillion as of press time.