Americans for Financial Reform
June 11, 2026

AFREF Speaker Series: CLARITY at What Cost? How Crypto’s Policy Prescription Could Upend Financial Stability

This month, the Senate is poised to take up a major piece of legislation crafted by the  crypto-industry—the CLARITY Act. If it were to become law, it would have an enormous and dangerous impact far beyond individuals and businesses directly using crypto.  

Join Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund to hear leading experts’ analysis of the serious risks—for households, for workers saving for retirement, and for financial and economic stability writ large—created by radical crypto driven deregulation.


Featuring:

  • Hilary J. Allen – Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law
    Professor Allen is an internationally recognized expert on crypto and financial stability regulation who has regularly been consulted by the U.S. Congress and regulators worldwide. She  is the author of the internet serial FinTech Dystopia and the book Driverless Finance: Fintech’s Impact on Financial Stability.
  • Tonantzin Carmona – Fellow, Brookings Institution
    Tonantzin Carmona is a fellow at Brookings Metro who focuses on wealth and inequality, including emerging technologies like crypto. She previously served as special assistant to the president at the National Economic Council and senior advisor at the Treasury Department and has been widely published in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Politico, and more. 
  • Lee Reiners – Lecturing Fellow, Duke University
    Lee Reiners is a lecturing fellow and teaches classes on fintech, crypto, and financial regulatory law and policy at Duke University. Previously he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He edits The FinReg Blog and his work has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and American Banker
  • Arthur J. Wilmarth – Professor Emeritus of Law, George Washington University Law School
    For over 30 years, Professor Wilmarth, lectured on banking law, constitutional history, corporations, professional responsibility, and more. He was the executive director of GWU’s Center for Law, Economics & Finance from 2011 to 2014, has published more than 40 law review articles and book chapters, and authored Taming the Megabanks: Why We Need a New Glass-Steagall Act.

Moderator:

Mark Hays – Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund/Demand Progress Action
Mark Hays is the Associate Director for Cryptocurrency and Financial Technology with AFR/AFREF and with Demand Progress. Previously, Hays was the Anti-Money Laundering Campaign Director at Global Witness and has led advocacy work at Greenpeace, NAACP, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, and others.