The CLARITY Act has benefited seven DeFi protocols, while channels for generating passive income with stablecoins have been blocked.

Original author: Tindorr

Chopper, Foresight News

Everyone in the market is watching the regulatory jurisdiction dispute between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over which altcoins qualify as "digital commodities." This is merely a surface-level interpretation, already priced in by the market.

The real profit logic of the CLARITY Act lies elsewhere: the bill quietly defines legal boundaries for institutional DeFi activities, while, under strong lobbying by banks, directly blocks mainstream channels for ordinary users to earn passive income from idle stablecoins.

This will not only spur a new wave of institutional capital entering DeFi, but also compel massive capital to flow into specific protocols that have already established compliant structures.

Here are the seven main benefit items I have outlined.

The bill passed the House of Representatives in July 2025 (vote: 294 in favor, 134 opposed); it entered the Senate Banking Committee for review on May 14, 2026 (note: on May 14, the CLARITY Act was approved by a vote of the Senate Banking Committee).

CLARITY provides transparent, real-time insights into blockchain data to help users make informed decisions. It simplifies complex on-chain metrics into easy-to-understand visuals and alerts for all levels of crypto expertise.

• Clarify the regulatory division of authority between the SEC and CFTC, with digital commodities falling under the CFTC’s jurisdiction;
• Establish safe harbor rules for DeFi protocols, node validators, and open-source developers, so they are no longer automatically classified as money transmitters or brokers.

The most important part of this article is Section 404 on stablecoin yields: the GENIUS Act, which took effect in the U.S. last year, prohibits stablecoin issuers from directly paying interest to users; however, exchanges, DeFi platforms, and intermediaries were previously still able to offer yield on users' idle funds.

Once the CLARITY Act is officially enacted, it will immediately trigger two major changes:

• Institutional capital is removing barriers to entry. Previously, entities such as BlackRock, Apollo, Deutsche Bank, pension funds, and corporate treasury funds had been holding back, as compliance teams could not determine whether these assets qualified as securities and were hesitant to make large allocations. Now, with the CFTC clearly asserting jurisdiction and DeFi establishing a safe harbor, institutions can finally enter the market with significant investments.
• Profit-seeking capital is withdrawing from idle stablecoin yield products. The previous model of earning approximately 5% annualized returns simply by holding USDC on exchanges will no longer exist. Hundreds of billions in capital seeking stable returns must now find new allocation outlets.

Therefore, two massive streams of capital—institutional investors finally entering the market and retail investors seeking yield—will converge on the same category of assets: compliant, real-world-use-case-driven, structured yield products.

These protocols have been specifically designed for this new regulatory framework.

Pendle: Underlying Yield Infrastructure Layer

Pendle is the DeFi protocol most compatible with the CLARITY Act. It splits all yield-bearing assets into principal tokens (PT) and yield tokens (YT): holding PT locks in a fixed annualized yield, while holding YT allows users to speculate on changes in yield rates. This entire process involves active trading and liquidity provision, not merely passive interest earning.

Before the bill takes effect: Institutions recognize the product mechanism but are restricted from large-scale participation due to regulatory ambiguity; tokenized real-world assets (RWA) can only remain in pilot or offshore packaging stages; it is legally uncertain whether PT and YT tokens qualify as securities.

After the bill takes effect: PT/YT trading is clearly classified under the CFTC’s commodity derivatives regulatory scope; the ban on passive yields from stablecoins forces massive capital inflows into these active income-generating products; and major asset managers like BlackRock can custody tokenized RWA and private credit assets, offering clients on-chain fixed-income exposure through Pendle.

For example: Apollo Credit Fund (ACRED), tokenized via Securitize and wrapped as eACRED by the Ember protocol, launched on Pendle in April 2026. Holding PT-eACRED allows you to instantly allocate to Apollo’s full portfolio of credit assets, including direct corporate lending, asset-backed lending, prime credit, non-performing credit, and structured credit. All products are combinable and fully operate on-chain.

After the CLARITY Act is enacted, this model will become the standard template for institutional capital entry into the U.S. market, and Pendle will become the core yield infrastructure for incremental institutional liquidity.

Key items to watch: TVL of RWA asset pools, progress in partnerships with compliant custodians, and the issuance volume of tokenized assets (PT).

Morpho: On-chain Prime Broker

Morpho specializes in permissionless lending markets with support for customizable risk management parameters.

Before the legislation takes effect: Using tokenized RWAs as collateral for lending carries the risk of being classified as unregistered derivatives; there is a lack of fund pools that meet institutional risk management standards and hold fiduciary qualifications; liquidation risks and oracle risks deter large capital from entering.

After the bill is enacted: Strategy firms such as Gauntlet and Steakhouse can establish compliantly licensed vaults, customizing loan-to-value ratios, oracles, position limits, and KYC准入; institutions can use stablecoins as collateral to borrow real-world assets, engage in leveraged arbitrage cycles, and provide market liquidity—all operating within a clear CFTC regulatory framework. Stablecoin capital displaced from passive yield markets will continuously flow into Morpho vaults, generating compliant returns through active lending activities.

The on-chain prime brokerage model will officially launch and operate. Stablecoin funds displaced from the passive investment market will continuously flow into Morpho pools, generating compliant returns through active lending and borrowing activities.

Key items to watch: the locked amount in vaults managed by institutional strategy partners, new RWA collateral categories added, and the number of institutional partnership strategies launched.

Sky (USDS / sUSDS)

Sky (formerly MakerDAO) allows users to deposit USDS in exchange for sUSDS, earning protocol yields including the stability fee, U.S. Treasury bond income from reserve assets, and RWA allocation returns. Sky is the DeFi product most closely resembling a tokenized money market fund.

But the issue is, depositing USDS to exchange for sUSDS—is this an active business activity, or is it passive yield that is restricted by the ban?

Sky has consistently followed Ethena’s path by partnering with compliant institutions to build a regulatory-compliant structure. If regulators adopt a lenient interpretation of “active business exemptions,” sUSDS could become one of the largest compliant on-chain yield products, with built-in exposure to RWA assets.

The stablecoin yield ban will directly drive idle USDC funds into USDS Savings products.

Key items to watch: Rulemaking by the Department of the Treasury and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission following the passage of the bill.

Maple Finance: On-chain Credit Trading Desk

Maple Finance specializes in institutional lending pools. Users deposit stablecoins as lenders, while borrowers undergo rigorous due diligence (market makers, hedge funds, institutional treasury departments); its Syrup pool is open to retail users.

Before the law takes effect: Institutional lending without sufficient collateral carries compliance risks of being classified as unregistered securities; banks and insurance institutions cannot participate compliantly due to unclear regulatory jurisdiction; after early pool defaults occurred, compliance teams generally adopted a wait-and-see stance.

After the legislation takes effect: Maple officially transitions into a compliant on-chain credit asset issuance platform; banks and insurance institutions can enter seamlessly.

Maple is inherently institutional-grade: the Syrup pool has integrated with Morpho to enable cross-protocol credit asset portfolio allocation. Bitwise and Sky positioned themselves in Maple strategies well before the legislation was enacted.

The CLARITY Act simply removes regulatory restrictions that limited its scale expansion.

Key items to watch: Total locked liquidity in the Syrup pool, progress in diversifying institutional borrowers, and the launch of new credit strategies for RWA asset issuers.

Centrifuge: Native Issuance Layer for RWA Assets

While Pendle handles yield splitting and Maple manages credit pools, Centrifuge operates at a more upstream level—the source of real-world asset tokenization. Private credit, commercial paper, structured credit tranches, and small business loans can all be packaged as on-chain tokens and seamlessly integrated into the entire DeFi ecosystem.

Before the bill takes effect: Real-world credit asset tokenization remains in the experimental stage; the classification of tokens—as securities, commodities, or a new category—is unclear, deterring institutions from entering the market; there are no federal-level custody and settlement rules for underlying assets; and most pools are limited in size, forcing them to operate indirectly through offshore structures.

After the legislation takes effect: Centrifuge will become the core entry point for RWA tokenization; the regulatory classification of tokenized tranches of private credit will be clearly defined, enabling compliant custody and large-scale use as collateral for institutional lending; banks and asset management institutions can participate directly on-chain in real-world activities such as SME financing, bill discounting, and structured credit—without needing offshore structures.

Protocols related to STRC assets: Fixed Income Channel

Strategy has issued perpetual preferred shares STRC, listed on Nasdaq, with an annualized dividend yield of approximately 11.5% and monthly rate adjustments to maintain the share price near its $100 par value. Apyx and Saturn Credit are the two leading mainstream STRC packaging protocols: Apyx issues apxUSD and apyUSD (with a total supply exceeding $400 million); Saturn issues USDat and sUSDat; both have launched PT/YT trading markets on Pendle.

Before the bill takes effect: Although the entire business pipeline has been established, U.S.-compliant funds cannot yet custody, restructure, or repack such wrapped assets on a large scale.

After the bill takes effect: PT trading falls under the CFTC’s commodity regulatory scope, and DeFi safe harbor protects protocol compliance; U.S.-compliant institutional funds can bulk-purchase PT tokens related to Apyx and Saturn, locking in fixed returns of approximately 12 months, then package them through traditional brokerage channels into retail-targeted fixed-income financial products.

The full process is: Strategy issues STRC → Apyx/Saturn wraps dividend yields on-chain → Pendle splits them into PT (principal tokens) and YT (yield tokens) → U.S.-compliant institutional funds purchase large amounts of PT to lock in fixed returns → Repackaged as a retail-accessible "Bitcoin-linked fixed-income product (approx. 12% APY)."

Key items to watch: the locked supply of related PT tokens, whether U.S.-compliant funds will launch STRC-linked fixed-income products, and monthly STRC dividend adjustments.

A higher perspective reveals the unified patterns of the seven protocols:

• These protocols proactively implemented KYC compliance and business-scenario-based architectures before regulatory pressure arose;
• CFTC jurisdictional clarity + DeFi safe harbor completely eliminate the largest securities classification risk for institutions;
• The ban on passive yields for stablecoins redirects massive capital toward structured products with real business operations and RWA-backed assets;
• Institutions will naturally become the承接 parties, seamlessly overlaying their existing custody and prime brokerage infrastructure onto these DeFi protocols.

• The bill has not yet been finalized. It has only passed committee review and still needs to go through processes such as reconciling the House and Senate versions, overcoming the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, harmonizing the final texts between both chambers, and presidential signing. The prediction market Polymarket assigns a 76% probability of enactment by 2026—high, but not guaranteed.
• All protocols carry native DeFi risks, including smart contract vulnerabilities, oracle failures, stablecoin depegging, and counterparty credit risk. CLARITY clarifies regulatory boundaries but does not eliminate investment risk.
• "Benefit from price increases" implies an underlying assumption: institutions will enter the market at the pace anticipated by the market. Although consensus is strong, the actual implementation cycle is often slower than market pricing, and institutional adoption typically requires several months of adjustment.

The CLARITY Act is not merely a story of "DeFi legalization"—that is the surface-level narrative, already priced in by the market.

The true second-order market logic is: When passive stablecoin yields are restricted, where will the massive capital seeking returns flow? Which protocols and sectors can absorb institutional capital inflows without requiring temporary compliance restructuring? This does not imply that the token prices of these protocols will necessarily rise—their token economic models still require separate analysis.