Ironwallet CEO Ermo Eero warns that unilateral U.S. law cannot substitute for mutual international treaties. He notes that the crypto industry must build genuine institutional trust by policing bad actors from within rather than fighting external oversight.
Key Takeaways:
- On May 14, the Senate Banking Committee voted 15–9 to advance the stablecoin-focused CLARITY Act.
- The 15–9 committee vote signals a regulatory shift from Biden-era SEC lawsuits toward U.S. capital growth.
- Ironwallet CEO Ermo Eero warns global standards need treaties, despite 2025 $GENIUS Act momentum.
A Pivot for Domestic Capital
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s recent advancement of the CLARITY Act marks a major pivot for domestic capital. Proponents, like U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, say the bill delivers much-needed regulatory certainty, cementing the U.S. as a premier crypto hub and laying the groundwork for a global digital asset standard.
Yet, critics argue that unilateral U.S. law cannot substitute for mutual recognition treaties. While acknowledging that the U.S. dominates major markets, Ironwallet CEO Ermo Eero noted that a truly global framework ultimately requires international collaboration.
“So: important pivot for domestic capital, but not yet the Bretton Woods moment for crypto,” Eero said.
Still, like many others, the Ironwallet CEO sees the bill’s advancement as a signal that the U.S. is finally moving from enforcement-heavy regulation toward legislative clarity. Under the Biden administration, regulatory bodies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission under Gary Gensler, used lawsuits and other tools when going after crypto startups. As a consequence, many companies actively considered moving to crypto-friendly jurisdictions.
Since the start of the second Trump administration, U.S. regulators have shifted away from a “regulation-by-enforcement” regime, dropping several high-profile lawsuits against the industry. While lawmakers successfully passed the nation’s first major crypto legislation, the $GENIUS Act in 2025, the stablecoin-focused CLARITY Act stalled late that year under intense pressure from the banking sector and Senate Democrats. The bill finally broke its deadlock on May 14, passing a crucial test when the U.S. Senate Banking Committee voted 15–9 to advance it.
Converting Principled Opponents
Although three Democratic senators voted with their Republican counterparts, the apparent divide suggests crypto is still seen as a partisan issue, more than 15 months after it proved a key issue in the 2024 U.S. elections. According to Eero, this state of affairs could mean one of two things: either the success of the “ crypto voter” narrative may have been “overstated or too narrowly distributed across key swing states to override entrenched ideological opposition.”
On the other hand, Eero believes advocacy efforts may have done little to assuage critics like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who fear the law will leave consumers worse off.
“Second, industry advocacy has been effective at saving crypto from existential bans, but less effective at converting principled opponents like Warren, whose concerns about consumer harm, illicit finance, and inequality are genuine, but not performative,” Eero said.
Eero added that the problem is not a lack of consumer protections, but a lack of trust. He said until the industry demonstrates it can police bad actors, protect retail customers from hacks and scams, and enforce standards without being told to, institutional trust will remain brittle.
“The missing link is a willingness to accept oversight from within as a precondition for being trusted from outside,” Eero said.
Turning to banks’ continuing opposition, the CEO urged the crypto sector to proactively seek partnerships rather than try to flank them. He said they can do this by offering banks white-label custody and settlement infrastructure instead of building parallel systems that exclude them. The sector must support risk-calibrated capital requirements that differentiate between volatile crypto trading and stable, overcollateralized lending. Furthermore, the industry should jointly lobby for narrow-purpose bank charters for crypto firms, which give banks a regulated counterparty rather than an unregulated competitor.
The objective, Eero argued, is making banks beneficiaries of crypto adoption, not victims of disintermediation.
“If crypto only lobbies against banks, banks will win the lobbying war, because they have deeper pockets and longer relationships with the regulators,” Eero said.