House Financial Services Chair says real-world asset tokenization will follow stablecoins and market structure on Congress’s digital assets agenda
Rep. French Hill, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, told CoinDesk that tokenization of real-world assets would be the next major legislative focus after stablecoins and market structure, and that he expected the Clarity Act to secure bipartisan consensus in the Senate.
Hill made the remarks during the Digital Assets and Emerging Tech Policy Summit, hosted by Vanderbilt University and the Blockchain Association in early April 2026. The House Financial Services Committee had held a hearing on tokenization in late March, signaling the committee’s intent to examine whether regulatory or legislative action is needed to facilitate the tokenization of assets like stocks and bonds.
“Tokenization of an asset, such as a common stock, is really an exercise in changing systems. It’s not changing the law,” Hill said. “All the legal or regulatory requirements about common stock are also applied to a common stock token, right? And so in our view, that’s why these hearings bring up member awareness.”
Hill framed tokenization as a continuation of market infrastructure modernization rather than regulatory innovation. He pointed to the 1970s and 1980s, when paper-based markets were digitized, reducing settlement times from T+5 to T+1 for equities. “To me, this is an operating decision, and the interoperability of it is the biggest challenge, not the mechanical, technical aspect of doing it,” he said.
On the Clarity Act, which addresses market structure and digital asset regulation, Hill expressed confidence that the Senate would adopt the House version. The House had secured 78 Democratic votes on stablecoin sales practices, decentralized finance, and ethics rules in its version of the bill. “These are all things we dealt with in the House bill successfully and got 78 Democratic votes in the House last year. So I don’t see any reason why they can’t find consensus in the Senate on the House bill,” Hill said.
Hill noted that the Senate had relied heavily on House precedent. “I think the Senate’s relied quite a bit on the House work on both FIT21 from the previous Congress and Clarity in this Congress. I think you see that quite clearly in the Senate Agriculture markup, I think you see that in the basic draft of many of the components in the Senate bill,” he said.
If both the GENIUS Act and Clarity Act pass, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission will commence a 12-month joint rulemaking process to establish common standards. Hill signaled that the House would monitor regulatory implementation closely. “If we’re successful in GENIUS rulemaking, and we’re successful in passing Clarity, you’ll commence about a 12-month joint rulemaking process between the CFTC and SEC. And I really think policy attention will track back into the regulatory agencies to try to make sure that our vision in the House of an integrated, common, fit-for-purpose approach is absolutely implemented,” he said.
Hill also underscored bipartisan momentum on digital assets. “In the past four years, we’ve seen the digital assets ecosystem really engage, not only on policy points, but also politically. And you saw that in the 2024 election. So I anticipate that the digital assets ecosystem, political activity will be important to the 2026 election. It’s bipartisan. It’s supportive of people who are pro-innovation,” he said.
On whether tokenization will require new law or regulatory action, Hill said the committee would evaluate both paths. “We’ll find out if there needs to be some, you know, legislative activity versus purely regulatory, and that’s good. That’s what Congress’s job is,” he said.
