Crypto companies are aggressively recruiting policy veterans from traditional finance and government as federal crypto regulation remains stuck in Congress, signaling that industry leaders expect regulatory clarity to arrive sooner or later and want to be ready. The trend reflects a broader shift: rather than waiting for lawmakers to act, blockchain firms are building internal policy teams to shape how rules will eventually be written and to ensure their business models can survive whatever framework emerges.

Why Are Crypto Companies Hiring Policy Experts Now?

The urgency stems from a regulatory vacuum. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have ramped up enforcement and proposed rules independently, but comprehensive federal legislation has stalled. The CLARITY Act, which would establish a unified framework for digital assets and clarify which agency oversees what, has faced repeated delays and procedural hurdles, with a vote scheduled for mid-September but no guarantee of passage before the November elections.

Into this uncertainty, blockchain platforms are hiring. Ondo Finance, a platform offering tokenized U.S. Treasuries and stocks, recently appointed Allison Parent as chief policy officer. Parent previously served as executive director of the Global Financial Markets Association, a trade group representing major capital market participants, and held senior roles at Barclays and the Bank of England. She also worked as general counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget during the drafting of the Dodd-Frank Act, the landmark financial regulation law passed after the 2008 crisis.

"Balanced regulatory policy involves weighing growth and innovation with market integrity, consumer protection, and overall financial stability. Ondo Finance has the infrastructure in place and I'm excited to support unlocking the full potential of onchain markets," said Allison Parent.

Allison Parent, Chief Policy Officer at Ondo Finance

Ondo's move is emblematic of a broader industry strategy. As regulators such as the SEC and CFTC have ramped up efforts to regulate various aspects of the crypto industry while federal legislation stalls, companies are recognizing that having credible policy voices on staff can help them anticipate regulatory requirements, engage constructively with policymakers, and position themselves as responsible actors in an emerging asset class.

What Would the CLARITY Act Actually Change for Crypto Firms?

The CLARITY Act, formally known as H.R. 3633 and introduced in May 2025, would establish a comprehensive market-structure framework for digital assets by allocating clear jurisdictional roles between the SEC and CFTC. However, the bill addresses regulatory clarity without necessarily solving the operational challenges that crypto and traditional finance firms face as they scale.

Under the proposed framework, the CFTC would receive exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over digital commodity cash or spot transactions on registered digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers. The SEC would retain anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority over transactions involving permitted payment stablecoins and digital commodities on SEC-registered entities. The bill also includes provisions requiring SEC registrants that are also registered with the CFTC to adopt conflict-of-interest policies and mandates that the two agencies enter into a memorandum of understanding to avoid duplicative oversight.

Beyond jurisdictional clarity, the CLARITY Act includes operational requirements:

• Custody Standards: Futures commission merchants would be required to hold customer digital assets with qualified digital asset custodians, addressing a key institutional concern about asset safety.
• Blockchain Recordkeeping: Brokers, dealers, transfer agents, investment advisers, investment companies, and national securities exchanges could use blockchain-based records for existing recordkeeping requirements, subject to SEC rulemaking within 180 days of enactment.
• Registration Framework: The bill would establish an expedited registration process for digital commodity exchanges and other intermediaries, reducing the time and uncertainty firms currently face.

Yet regulatory clarity and operational modernization are separate challenges. A survey of 250 senior operations, finance, and technology leaders in the United States and United Kingdom found that 85% of respondents expected scalability strain as activity grows against legacy processes, and 59% of firms working with digital assets reported disproportionate operational complexity relative to other asset classes. Additionally, 41% identified data integration and compatibility as their top operational challenge, and firms reported losing 15.9% of operational budgets to rework driven by manual processes and spreadsheets.

How Are Crypto Companies Preparing for Regulatory Clarity?

Beyond hiring policy experts, crypto firms are positioning themselves as institutional-grade platforms. Ondo Finance exemplifies this approach. The company launched OUSG, an institutional fund offering exposure to short-term U.S. government debt, in early 2023 and now manages approximately $2 billion in total value locked across its Treasury products. In September 2025, Ondo debuted Ondo Global Markets, a platform for tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which reached $1 billion in total value locked within eight months.

This growth reflects institutional appetite for tokenized assets, but it also creates regulatory exposure. By hiring a veteran like Allison Parent, Ondo is signaling to regulators, institutional clients, and potential partners that it takes compliance seriously and understands the policy landscape.

Another example of industry preparation is the SEC registration milestone achieved by Evernorth Holdings, an XRP treasury firm. Evernorth announced that its Form S-4 registration statement with the SEC is now effective, clearing the way for a Nasdaq listing through a merger with Armada Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The SPAC merger is expected to close in late Q3 or early Q4 of 2026, subject to shareholder approval. If the merger closes, the combined company is expected to trade under the ticker XRPN. Evernorth's investors include Ripple, Arrington Capital, SBI Group, Pantera Capital, Kraken, and GSR, among others.

Evernorth's path to public markets demonstrates that crypto-focused firms can navigate existing SEC frameworks, even without comprehensive federal legislation. The company is designed as a regulated vehicle for public market investors seeking exposure to XRP, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with a current market cap of $91.6 billion.

What Happens If the CLARITY Act Fails?

If federal legislation continues to stall, the regulatory landscape will remain fragmented. The SEC and CFTC will continue to issue guidance and enforcement actions independently, creating uncertainty for firms operating across multiple asset classes or jurisdictions. This fragmentation has already pushed some crypto derivatives activity offshore, according to industry observers.

However, the trend of crypto companies hiring policy veterans suggests that industry leaders expect some form of federal framework to eventually emerge, whether through the CLARITY Act or alternative legislation. By building policy expertise now, firms like Ondo Finance are positioning themselves to adapt quickly when regulatory clarity arrives, rather than scrambling to comply after the fact.

The stakes are high. Institutional capital, which has been sitting on the sidelines awaiting regulatory clarity, could flow into tokenized assets and crypto-native platforms once a clear framework is in place. Companies with experienced policy teams will likely have an advantage in capturing that capital and shaping how rules are implemented.