Solana Policy Institute CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine said on Aug. 18 that the CLARITY Act has only a 10% chance of becoming law before the November midterm elections.

Speaking at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Whitehouse-Levine described the digital asset market structure bill as being in “August recess purgatory.” He said the narrowing congressional calendar and unresolved industry disputes had made passage increasingly difficult.

His percentage is a personal assessment, not an official forecast. The Senate has taken one procedural step that preserves a September path, but several votes and further negotiations would still be required.

CLARITY Act faces a Sept. 15 procedural test

Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633 before senators left Washington. The chamber resumes normal business on Sept. 14.

The official Senate schedule says the cloture motion will ripen at 2:15 p.m. on Sept. 15. Approval would allow the Senate to begin considering the legislation.

The vote is not final passage. Senators would still need to debate the measure, consider amendments and approve the resulting text. Any Senate changes could also require further House action before the bill reaches the president.

As crypto.news previously explained, the September procedural vote will test whether supporters have enough bipartisan backing to overcome the Senate’s 60 vote cloture threshold.

Prediction markets remain more optimistic

Polymarket’s live market placed the chance of the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 at approximately 20% on Aug. 19. Trading volume had passed $7.2 million.

Kalshi traders placed the probability near 23% on Aug. 18, down from roughly 50% less than a month earlier. Prediction market prices can move quickly and do not guarantee legislative outcomes.

The comparison with Whitehouse-Levine’s 10% estimate requires caution. His prediction covered passage before the November midterms, while the Polymarket contract allows the bill to become law through Dec. 31.

The market therefore includes a possible post election session. That wider deadline partly explains why traders may assign higher odds than Whitehouse-Levine did.

Stablecoin and ethics disputes narrow the path

Whitehouse-Levine said participation by banks, securities companies and derivatives firms had added competing demands to negotiations. Banks remain concerned about provisions involving stablecoin rewards, while other financial firms are focused on sections affecting their existing businesses.

Democratic lawmakers have also sought ethics restrictions covering government officials’ digital asset interests. Those disputes add to negotiations over SEC and CFTC jurisdiction, decentralized finance and customer protection.

Whitehouse-Levine called himself “hopeful, but realistic about its odds.” He also warned that failure would discard more than a year of work by congressional lawmakers and staff.

In earlier coverage, crypto.news mapped how the limited Senate calendar leaves little time for debate and amendments before election politics consume the floor.

SEC moves while Congress remains stalled

The SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets on Aug. 18, creating a separate regulatory track while Congress debates the broader market structure bill.

The agency’s proposal includes two exemptions for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. One would cover offerings of up to $5 million during four years. Another would cover up to $75 million during each 12 month period.

The rules remain proposals and cannot replace every provision in the CLARITY Act. Agency rules also carry less permanence than federal legislation and remain subject to statutory limits and court review.

Whitehouse-Levine said regulators should move because the industry “can’t afford to keep waiting for Congress.” His organization plans to focus on token fundraising pathways and rules allowing more securities and derivatives activity to occur onchain.

The next confirmed event is the Sept. 15 cloture vote. Failure to proceed would sharply reduce the bill’s remaining 2026 path. Success would keep it alive but leave amendments, final passage and possible House coordination unresolved.

Maya Protocol has halted its cross-chain network after an attacker exploited six linked software flaws to steal an estimated $1.7 million in Bitcoin and other crypto assets.

Maya Protocol pseudonymous co-founder Aalux said on Wednesday that the attacker took about 20 Bitcoin, worth roughly $1.4 million, alongside another $300,000 in assets before the protocol activated a global halt to stop further losses.

Kraken’s consumer app Krak has rolled out a multi-asset debit card in the United States, giving customers a way to pay with crypto and fiat while earning cashback denominated in either US dollars or Bitcoin (BTC). The launch adds to a broader push by crypto exchanges to move beyond trading and into everyday financial services.

According to Krak’s announcement, the card supports more than 600 currencies and assets. At the point of sale, users’ holdings are converted into US dollars, and a single purchase can draw from multiple balances depending on the spending order the customer sets.

Key takeaways

• Krak’s US debit card lets users spend from a wallet containing both crypto and fiat, with point-of-sale conversion into USD for purchases.
• Cashback can be earned in dollars or Bitcoin, with rates tied to average assets held across Krak, Kraken, and Kraken Pro.
• The card is issued by Lead Bank on Visa’s network and uses Stripe Issuing for program infrastructure, with physical and virtual options available to eligible customers.
• Krak positions the card as a rewards alternative to credit cards, aiming to appeal to customers wary of carrying monthly balances.
• Kraken and its parent Payward continue expanding into financial services beyond crypto trading, including payments and broader market products.

A multi-asset card designed for everyday spending

The Krak debit card is built around a simple promise: users can spend using a range of crypto and fiat holdings without having to manually select which asset to use for each transaction. Instead, the app allows cardholders to configure an asset-spend order, and the card will then pull from multiple balances as needed for a purchase.

Cashback is described as a key part of the value proposition. Krak said customers can receive up to 2% cashback, with the payout available in either US dollars or BTC. The company also noted that the specific cashback rate is dependent on the average assets held across Krak, Kraken, and Kraken Pro—meaning rewards are designed to scale with longer-term engagement rather than a one-off balance.

For US cardholders, the program includes both physical and virtual cards, with issuance routed through Visa’s network via Lead Bank. Krak said the rollout is powered by Stripe Issuing, an arrangement that signals how payment infrastructure is being leveraged to bring crypto-linked benefits into mainstream checkout flows.

Why Krak is leaning on “no-debt” rewards

Krak is framing the card as a counterweight to credit-card rewards programs. To support that positioning, the company commissioned a Morning Consult survey of 2,001 US adults.

The survey found that 42% of credit card holders worry about paying off their monthly balance. It also reported that 60% of respondents said they would switch to a debit card offering rewards without taking on debt.

In practical terms, that message targets a common friction point for rewards programs: the possibility that benefits come with a cost if consumers carry balances. By centering the product around debit spending—rather than credit limits—Krak is attempting to fit crypto rewards into behavior patterns that resemble traditional consumer debit programs, while still offering exposure to digital assets through BTC-denominated cashback.

From payments to broader financial services

Kraken’s consumer card launch lands within a wider strategy for Payward, the company behind Kraken and its apps. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi discussed broader expansion during remarks Tuesday at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, according to coverage of his comments.

Sethi said that expanding into multiple asset classes can reduce exposure to any single market. He also described tokenization as “a large part” of Payward’s effort to widen its financial offerings, and he argued the company must build products and services that are “not too different to a JP Morgan or a financial institution.”

The framing highlights the direction many major exchanges have taken in recent years: using regulated infrastructure and institutional know-how to develop more than trading platforms. When exchanges move into banking-related services and asset tokenization themes, the emphasis often shifts from pure price speculation to product distribution—placing crypto-linked capabilities closer to how consumers already spend, invest, or move money.

Kraken’s card rollout also aligns with a broader industry pattern. Coinbase and other large platforms have been expanding into additional product categories beyond spot trading, including areas such as equities, derivatives, prediction markets, tokenized assets, and pre-IPO products.

Kraken’s US expansion doesn’t stop at payments

In parallel with the debit card announcement, Kraken said it launched stock trading for customers in the European Economic Area (EEA) for more than 7,000 US-listed stocks. The company’s decision to widen trading access to traditional markets underscores that its consumer growth strategy is not limited to payments.

Taken together, the card and the stock expansion show how crypto platforms are working to broaden their customer base and deepen engagement. A debit card can drive day-to-day usage, while expanded market offerings can capture users looking to trade across asset classes within a single ecosystem.

For investors and users, the key question is how these product lines will reinforce each other over time. Cashback incentives tied to average holdings across apps could encourage users to maintain balances within the Kraken ecosystem, potentially improving retention. At the same time, regulators and payment networks will remain central to whether these offerings can scale smoothly and sustainably.

Looking ahead, readers should watch how Krak’s cashback terms perform in practice—especially how average-holding calculations are applied—and whether Kraken continues to add card-linked features or expand into more mainstream financial services categories beyond crypto payments.

Kalshi filed two product submissions with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Aug. 18, seeking permission to launch perpetual futures tied to a broad U.S. stock index and copper.

The exchange submitted both products through the voluntary approval process under CFTC Regulation 40.3. Kalshi said it plans to list the contracts shortly after approval, meaning neither product can begin trading based on the filings alone.

The applications extend Kalshi’s perpetual futures expansion beyond digital assets. They also arrive while CME Group challenges the CFTC’s authority to classify no expiry contracts as futures rather than swaps.

Hyperliquid Policy Center and trade[XYZ] asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 18 to create a regulatory framework for pre IPO perpetual contracts.

The SEC added the joint submission to its public IPO modernization docket. Posting the letter confirms its receipt but does not mean the agency supports its recommendations or has approved the products.

The groups call the proposed instrument an IPOP. It would provide cash settled price exposure to a company approaching a public listing without conveying shares, voting rights, IPO allocations or claims against the issuer.

Hyperliquid proposal seeks five regulatory pillars

The 15 page letter asks the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to determine whether equity linked perpetuals are security futures or security based swaps. The classification would decide which registration, trading venue, clearing and margin requirements apply.

The groups also proposed rules covering product disclosures, listing eligibility, investor access and market integrity. They recommended disclosures addressing funding rates, leverage, liquidations, pricing methods, settlement and contract conversion rather than treating holders as equity owners.

Listing rules could limit an IPOP to a defined period after a company publicly files registration documents. Oracle and settlement procedures would be announced in advance, while changes would need disclosure.

Market integrity provisions could include audit trails, conflict controls and restrictions on deployers or affiliates trading while holding material nonpublic information. A phased rollout could also impose leverage and position limits before expanding access to retail investors.

Five markets underpin the price discovery argument

Trade[XYZ] told the SEC it had completed five IPOP markets tied to Cerebras, Quantinuum, SpaceX, SK Hynix and ChangXin Memory Technologies. The products operated for between one and 25 days before the referenced listings.

According to the applicants’ data, each contract’s final price before trading began was within 0.44% to 7.23% of the relevant stock’s opening price. Four U.S. offerings priced between 10.8% and 38.4% below the IPOP level recorded one day earlier.

Those figures support the groups’ claim that continuously traded derivatives “could” provide issuers and underwriters with an independent measure of demand. They do not establish how the products would perform across a larger or less active group of listings.

The SEC has not independently endorsed those performance claims. A five market sample is also too limited to establish that similar contracts would consistently improve IPO pricing.

As previously reported, the SpaceX product exposed a regulatory gray zone around private markets. SpaceX had not authorized the contract and received no proceeds from its trading.

Oracle risk remains central to investor protection

Pre IPO perpetuals depend on pricing and settlement rules designed by market deployers. Unlike listed stocks, private companies may lack a continuous, authoritative market price before their public debut.

Trade[XYZ] experienced a related problem after one unusually low SK Hynix share transaction entered its oracle inputs. As crypto.news reported, the SK Hynix pricing anomaly pushed the perpetual’s mark price down about 18% and triggered liquidations.

Trade[XYZ] later agreed to cover eligible losses as a discretionary measure. The company said its oracle followed its published design, although the external transaction involved only one share in a thin trading session.

The episode supports the letter’s call for disclosed oracle rules and market controls. It also shows why an accurate technical process may still produce a price that does not represent a deep or durable market.

SEC and CFTC must settle product classification

Trade[XYZ] currently operates these markets offshore and excludes U.S. persons. No approved U.S. pre IPO perpetual framework presently gives American retail traders access to the products described in the letter.

The CFTC’s May 29 policy established case by case review for perpetual contracts outside the Bitcoin product it approved for KalshiEX. The related policy text said equity based perpetuals would benefit from coordinated SEC and CFTC review.

The agencies have separately asked whether a cash settled perpetual referencing an equity security could qualify as a security future. Their eventual answer would determine whether current security futures rules can accommodate an instrument tied to a company whose shares have not yet started trading.

No response deadline applies to the Hyperliquid submission, and the SEC does not have to adopt its recommendations. Further steps could include staff discussions, another request for comment, joint agency guidance or formal rulemaking.