Op-Ed: Washington must match Kansas: Moran, Marshall can deliver clarity on crypto
Kansas families didn't ask to become the front lines of the digital currency debate. But when crypto kiosks started showing up in gas stations and grocery stores across our state, and scammers started using them to drain the savings of our seniors, we had no choice but to act.
Over the past two years, I worked to build a Kansas framework that takes digital assets seriously: both the genuine promise they hold and the very real dangers they pose when left ungoverned.
Earlier this year, Kansas passed House Bill 2591, the Virtual Currency Kiosk Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law this spring. That legislation requires kiosk operators to register with the state, use blockchain analytics software to screen for wallets tied to known fraud, display clear on-screen warnings before any transaction, cap fees, and ensure live customer service is always available. It passed unanimously. Not a single Kansas legislator voted against protecting our families.
As I said when we moved this legislation forward: Kansas families and seniors deserve consistent protections, whether a transaction happens in Topeka or through a server on the other side of the world. Kansas is moving to strengthen its safeguards. Now Washington must do the same and ensure that innovation does not come at the cost of security.
That moment has arrived. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or the Clarity Act, is now before the United States Senate, having passed the House last July with a commanding bipartisan vote of 294 to 134 and cleared the Senate Banking Committee this May. Kansas's two U.S. Senators, Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, have the standing, the credibility, and the duty to help carry it across the finish line.
For years, digital asset markets have operated in a regulatory no-man's land, with inconsistent rules and regulatory gaps. This ambiguity does not protected consumers and allows criminals to operate. The Clarity Act ends that confusion.
The bill draws clear jurisdictional lines and creates a modern enforcement framework that prioritizes fraud prevention, accountability, and coordination between state and federal authorities. It is designed, in the Senate Banking Committee's own words, to "prevent a future FTX collapse," the kind of catastrophic fraud that wiped out billions in ordinary Americans' savings. These are exactly the kinds of guardrails Kansas has been building at the state level. Washington should be doing the same.
State-by-state protections are not a substitute for a national framework. A scammer who uses a crypto kiosk in Wichita can route funds through a dozen foreign servers before the transaction settles. That is not a problem Kansas alone can solve.
For years, unregulated crypto platforms have competed against community banks without carrying deposit insurance requirements, capital mandates, or the full weight of federal banking regulation. The Clarity Act begins to level that playing field by bringing digital asset intermediaries under comparable federal oversight. Even more importantly, it gives community banks a defined regulatory lane to participate in the digital asset economy themselves, rather than watching from the sidelines as megabanks build out their own tokenized infrastructure. The Independent Community Bankers of America called the bill's committee passage "an important step" toward protecting Main Street community lending. Without clear rules, Kansas community banks face the worst of both worlds. The Clarity Act changes that.
Kansas acted. We did it with broad bipartisan support and the backing of AARP Kansas, the Kansas Bankers Association, and the Credit Union Association. Senator Moran has spent decades fighting for Kansas's rural communities and small businesses, the same Kansans most likely to be targeted by crypto fraud. Senator Marshall has consistently focused on cutting through government dysfunction to let markets work. But markets only work when rules apply equally to everyone. It is time to protect Kansans.