A legislative setback has not stopped every deal

The CLARITY Act’s failure to advance in the Senate has left a major gap in the US crypto rulebook. Yet bankers and investors interviewed by CoinDesk for an October 4 report said they did not expect it to bring digital-asset dealmaking to a halt.

Their view was more selective: businesses operating under clearer rules could remain attractive, while companies exposed to unresolved token classifications may be harder to value and acquire.

Infrastructure has a different risk profile

An acquisition can buy technology, distribution, licences or an operating team. Those assets may have strategic value even when a buyer is cautious about the legal treatment of a particular token.

That helps explain why the effect of legislative uncertainty is unlikely to be uniform. A payments provider with an established operating framework presents a different set of questions from a business whose main product depends on a disputed regulatory interpretation.

Regulators cannot settle every question

The SEC and CFTC have continued taking steps within their existing authority. Legal analysis published after the September Senate vote also highlighted the limits of that approach, particularly around comprehensive supervision of spot digital-commodity markets.

Agency action can clarify a specific activity without supplying every protection or allocation of authority that legislation might establish. For buyers, that distinction affects how much confidence to place in a regulatory position over the life of an investment.

The deal itself needs to survive uncertainty

The practical issue is not simply whether a transaction can close today. It is whether the acquired business can keep operating under plausible changes in interpretation or policy.

A stronger legal framework could make some transactions easier, but its absence does not remove every commercial reason to buy. The likely result is a market that differentiates more sharply between businesses, rather than one in which all crypto deals move together.

The continuing activity is therefore a sign of selective conviction, not proof that regulatory uncertainty no longer matters.