The CLARITY Act: A Turning Point For The Gaming Industry
Forbes25-07-2025
Chris Hewish, Xsolla's Chief Strategy Officer, leads the gaming business engine, offering 700+ payment methods in 200+ regions.
For years, companies working in blockchain, crypto and Web3 have been trying to balance momentum with caution. Even as innovation has exploded in these sectors, regulation has struggled to keep up. Agencies like the SEC and CFTC are operating from decades-old laws that never imagined digital tokens or decentralized protocols, let alone in-game NFTs.
The result is a gray area where it's not clear what is acceptable or not and how that might change at any moment. Without structure, it's challenging to create meaningful plans, particularly when attempting to attract institutional investors and enterprise players.
That's where the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025—CLARITY for short—comes in. If you care about the future of the U.S. economy, and in particular its role in emerging digital markets, this bipartisan bill is worth watching.
Why We Need CLARITY
Uncertainty is a significant hindrance to innovation. In a world of legal ambiguity and regulation by enforcement, developers spend more time asking what's allowed than actually building. It's already forcing companies to freeze new blockchain features or avoid Web3 integration entirely.
The U.S. is behind the curve. Without a clear path forward, we're losing jobs and long-term market share to more crypto-friendly regions. While other countries are giving developers and investors a clear green light, we're still debating which agency has jurisdiction. That leads to brain drain, capital flight and a growing sense that if you want to innovate, you should consider doing it somewhere else.
The CLARITY Act is the first serious, bipartisan attempt to solve this problem by providing a regulatory framework for digital assets. It clearly defines what counts as a security and what doesn't, and it gives primary regulatory authority to the CFTC for most digital commodities, including cryptocurrencies, NFTs and stablecoins.
By overriding conflicting state laws with a unified federal approach, it gives everyone from startups to major institutions one consistent set of rules. Legal experts describe it as a path to compliance, a roadmap that developers, investors and exchanges can actually follow. With the CLARITY Act, we get a framework that supports responsible innovation without drowning it under outdated red tape.
Why Gaming Is The Catalyst
The gaming industry has been an early adopter of Web3 technologies, from player-owned assets to tokenized economies to virtual commerce. We've seen companies like Immutable build out entire Layer 2 blockchains just for Web3 games. These are functioning, growing ecosystems with real users and real transactions.
Gaming offers a way to normalize Web3 by embedding it into something familiar that already works at scale. That's why we believe gaming can lead the way in Web3 adoption. Not only are we early users of these technologies, but we also have the commercial track record to turn them into viable products.
With clear rules in place, U.S.-based game studios can confidently pursue new Web3 features, attracting investment and bringing those jobs and opportunities back home. This is a pivotal moment for the industry, a chance to help shape the conversation, not just follow it.
At Xsolla, we've submitted official letters of support and shared our perspective publicly. We're also organizing roundtables to connect lawmakers and the gaming community, so regulators can hear directly from the people building the future of entertainment.
While the CLARITY Act still has to clear several legislative hurdles, the momentum is there. And the gaming industry is ready to lead. We've already embraced tokenization, creator economies and digital goods in ways that make Web3 real for millions of users.
This bill presents a real opportunity to reset the playing field, shifting from ambiguity to accountability. We can finally stop penalizing innovation and start rewarding it. Above all, we can maintain the next wave of technological leadership here in the U.S.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
For years, companies working in blockchain, crypto and Web3 have been trying to balance momentum with caution. Even as innovation has exploded in these sectors, regulation has struggled to keep up. Agencies like the SEC and CFTC are operating from decades-old laws that never imagined digital tokens or decentralized protocols, let alone in-game NFTs.
The result is a gray area where it's not clear what is acceptable or not and how that might change at any moment. Without structure, it's challenging to create meaningful plans, particularly when attempting to attract institutional investors and enterprise players.
That's where the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025—CLARITY for short—comes in. If you care about the future of the U.S. economy, and in particular its role in emerging digital markets, this bipartisan bill is worth watching.
Why We Need CLARITY
Uncertainty is a significant hindrance to innovation. In a world of legal ambiguity and regulation by enforcement, developers spend more time asking what's allowed than actually building. It's already forcing companies to freeze new blockchain features or avoid Web3 integration entirely.
The U.S. is behind the curve. Without a clear path forward, we're losing jobs and long-term market share to more crypto-friendly regions. While other countries are giving developers and investors a clear green light, we're still debating which agency has jurisdiction. That leads to brain drain, capital flight and a growing sense that if you want to innovate, you should consider doing it somewhere else.
The CLARITY Act is the first serious, bipartisan attempt to solve this problem by providing a regulatory framework for digital assets. It clearly defines what counts as a security and what doesn't, and it gives primary regulatory authority to the CFTC for most digital commodities, including cryptocurrencies, NFTs and stablecoins.
By overriding conflicting state laws with a unified federal approach, it gives everyone from startups to major institutions one consistent set of rules. Legal experts describe it as a path to compliance, a roadmap that developers, investors and exchanges can actually follow. With the CLARITY Act, we get a framework that supports responsible innovation without drowning it under outdated red tape.
Why Gaming Is The Catalyst
The gaming industry has been an early adopter of Web3 technologies, from player-owned assets to tokenized economies to virtual commerce. We've seen companies like Immutable build out entire Layer 2 blockchains just for Web3 games. These are functioning, growing ecosystems with real users and real transactions.
Gaming offers a way to normalize Web3 by embedding it into something familiar that already works at scale. That's why we believe gaming can lead the way in Web3 adoption. Not only are we early users of these technologies, but we also have the commercial track record to turn them into viable products.
With clear rules in place, U.S.-based game studios can confidently pursue new Web3 features, attracting investment and bringing those jobs and opportunities back home. This is a pivotal moment for the industry, a chance to help shape the conversation, not just follow it.
At Xsolla, we've submitted official letters of support and shared our perspective publicly. We're also organizing roundtables to connect lawmakers and the gaming community, so regulators can hear directly from the people building the future of entertainment.
While the CLARITY Act still has to clear several legislative hurdles, the momentum is there. And the gaming industry is ready to lead. We've already embraced tokenization, creator economies and digital goods in ways that make Web3 real for millions of users.
This bill presents a real opportunity to reset the playing field, shifting from ambiguity to accountability. We can finally stop penalizing innovation and start rewarding it. Above all, we can maintain the next wave of technological leadership here in the U.S.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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