House Financial Services Committee Targets Tokenization as Next Crypto Policy Focus

May 31, 2026 — The House Financial Services Committee is turning its attention to tokenization as the next major legislative priority following progress on stablecoin and market structure bills, Chairman Rep. French Hill revealed in an exclusive interview with CoinDesk last month.

Immediate Details & Direct Quotes

Rep. French Hill, who has led the House Financial Services Committee since former Chairman Patrick McHenry’s retirement, told CoinDesk at the Digital Assets and Emerging Tech Policy Summit in early April that tokenization represents the committee’s next major agenda item. The committee held a hearing on tokenization in late March aimed at helping lawmakers evaluate whether the SEC and bank regulators need additional authorities or rules to facilitate companies tokenizing real-world assets.

“Tokenization of an asset, such as a common stock, is really an exercise in changing systems,” Hill said. “It’s not changing the law. 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 noted that the House and Senate, as overseers of regulatory agencies, can use hearings to explore how existing systems can adapt to blockchain-based frameworks. The chairman also revealed he is examining potential tokenization of deposits in the commercial banking industry, which could enable direct debit payments without intermediated stops.

“These are all things we dealt with in the House bill successfully and got 78 Democratic votes in the House last year,” Hill said, referencing bipartisan support for the Clarity Act. “So I don’t see any reason why they can’t find consensus in the Senate on the House bill.”

Market Context & Reaction

The committee’s pivot to tokenization comes as lawmakers make headway on other crypto legislation. Hill expressed confidence that the Clarity Act, which addresses market structure, would secure bipartisan consensus in the Senate after the House version garnered 78 Democratic votes.

“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,” Hill said. He added that Senate negotiators have kept House counterparts “apprised of the process,” and both he and Rep. Bryan Steil, chair of the House Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence, have remained in contact with senators working on the Clarity Act.

Hill emphasized that determining whether legislative action is needed for tokenization — or whether policymaking should remain at the regulator level — is a central question for the committee. “We’ll find out if there needs to be some legislative activity versus purely regulatory, and that’s good. That’s what Congress’s job is,” he said.

Background & Historical Context

The Financial Services Committee has been engaged in digital asset policy for over a decade, with Hill referencing the foundational work of former Rep. Patrick McHenry and Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters. The committee played a pivotal role in advancing both the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act and the market structure-focused Clarity Act.

Hill noted the evolution of financial markets as context for tokenization discussions. “You think about going from call-out markets right to paper-based markets to digitization of that paper-based system, which took place in the 1970s and 1980s, and that’s increased accuracy, reduced fraud, increased speed, decreased the need for liquidity [and] improved settlement,” he said. “We went from T+5 on equities in the 1970s to T+1. So to me, this is an operating decision, and the interoperability of it is the biggest challenge.”

What This Means

Tokenized markets will require significant work on interoperability and compliance, according to Hill. The committee’s exploration could lead to either legislative action or purely regulatory guidance from agencies like the SEC.

“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,” Hill said. “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.”

The upcoming 2026 midterm elections will also shape crypto policy, with Hill noting that the digital assets ecosystem has become increasingly politically engaged. “In the past four years, we’ve seen the digital assets ecosystem really engage, not only on policy points, but also politically,” he said. “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.”

The House Ways and Means Committee is separately working on updating tax regulations around digital assets, with a bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroducing a crypto tax bill earlier this month.

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