1. The timeline has been pushed back

In the days after the results of the U.S. midterm elections came in on November 6, 2026, public reports repeatedly mentioned one thing: the market structure bill that the crypto industry has been hoping for might be delayed.

Some industry insiders offered a more specific assessment: the CLARITY Act could remain on hold until 2028. Note that this is an industry estimate, not an official conclusion, much less a settled outcome. The policy path depends on too many variables for anyone to guarantee what will happen.

The same round of discussions also mentioned that lawmakers critical of crypto assets had returned to the Senate, increasing short-term legislative uncertainty. This is all public information and can be verified independently.

But what’s interesting is that the reports didn’t make claims like “the industry has ground to a halt.”

On the contrary, several points all lead to the same conclusion: legislation slowing down and things continuing to move forward are two things that can happen at the same time.

II. Why stablecoins, of all things?

First, let’s look at what stablecoins actually solve.

They’re not a new concept. Put simply, they let value circulate on-chain in a relatively stable unit of account: settlements are faster, costs are lower, and markets don’t open and close according to exchange hours.

These advantages have little to do with which party is in power. Stablecoins are more like a payment method or settlement infrastructure: whoever finds them convenient will keep using them.

That’s why I think one argument made in public discussions holds up: stablecoin regulation may be the easiest area in which to build bipartisan consensus. The issues it raises are far less contentious than whether a certain type of asset qualifies as a security, and the questions are more concrete: How should reserves be held in custody? Who should audit them? How can redemptions be guaranteed? These are technical regulatory questions, not matters of principle.

There’s another factor: once something has been proven, it’s hard to reverse course. One industry professional has noted that once institutions and investors experience faster settlement, lower costs, and round-the-clock operations firsthand, it’s hard for that change to be reversed by a single election. That’s an opinion, not a fact; I’m relaying it as stated, with the reminder that it’s also uncertain.

III. It’s only the legislative track that has slowed down

Look beyond the bills, and you’ll see that another track has kept moving.

One jurisdiction announced standards for gold-backed tokens, linking each token to a physical gold bar of specific specifications, and is advancing interbank trading in tokenized gold. This isn’t about grand narratives; it’s about making clear what, exactly, is backing the tokens and how much of it there is.

There has also been public progress on taxation: one country passed a bill setting tax rates on crypto-asset gains, while another pushed back the implementation of its related tax rules by two years. The approaches differ, but both are moving toward putting the rules in writing rather than leaving things unresolved.

On the consumer-device side, a phone maker has preinstalled stablecoin account functionality on existing devices. Public reports put the figure at around 80 million units. The significance isn’t the number; it’s that on-chain accounts have gone from something you have to set up yourself to something that’s already built into your device.

In addition, tokenization of public equities is still considered to have room to advance under existing innovation-exemption frameworks at securities regulators.

Taken together, these developments have something in common: none of them depends on a sweeping new law. Standards, tax rules, infrastructure, and user-facing interfaces are each moving forward on their own tracks. Legislation is one path, but it isn’t the only one.

IV. Don’t mistake the narrative for implementation

For us, the most important thing here is to distinguish between two things.

One is the narrative: who said what, what year something might be put off until, and how the market interprets it. These things change quickly and are the easiest to get swept up in.

The other is what has actually been implemented: whether a standard has been published, whether a tax rule has passed, whether an interface has actually gone live. These things take time, but they can be verified.

I’ve seen far too many people mistake the first for the second, rushing to conclusions as soon as they hear a rumor. Often, the bill is still under discussion while sentiment has already swung back and forth several times.

One more thing needs to be said up front: policy directions and market impacts are both highly uncertain. Any claim about “what will happen,” including industry forecasts relayed in this piece, is an opinion, not a prediction. And a one-day market fluctuation is certainly no proof that a policy has been implemented, so don’t conflate the two.#稳定币 #美股走弱，加密货币市场普遍承压 #美股遭遇2020年以来最严重抛售