Apex CEO Says U.S. Crypto Bill Delay Could Push Firms Abroad

In an interview published Saturday, Oct. 24, Apex Group founder and CEO Peter Hughes said stalled U.S. crypto legislation may push firms toward faster-moving rules in Asia, the Middle East and Bermuda.

Hughes said businesses could be left “finding other solutions elsewhere.” He predicted that “they’ll step into this gap,” referring to the three regions, and described the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation as restrictive and slow to evolve.

The Senate’s Sept. 15 procedural vote was not a vote on final passage of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The cloture motion drew 49 yes votes and 50 no votes, with one senator not voting; the Senate recorded the vote at 2:19 p.m. ET (18:19 UTC). The motion needed three-fifths support to advance. The proposal would place oversight of digital commodity offers and sales within a framework involving the SEC and CFTC.

Separately, Apex announced Oct. 1 that it was working with droppRWA and Tokeny on a real-world asset tokenization project, with Saudi Arabia as the initial market. The companies are developing an integration that links asset verification with regulated investment structuring, administration and distribution. They plan to pursue further opportunities across the Middle East.

Hughes also pointed to tokenized money-market funds as potential collateral and said regulated yield-bearing stablecoins could support institutional adoption. He said stablecoin issuers would need to meet requirements such as reserve transparency.