Crypto World
Cynthia Lummis races to save the CLARITY Act before 2030
Sometime in the week of July 13, according to people briefed on the negotiations, Senate staff will release a unified draft of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, merging months of parallel work by the Banking and Agriculture Committees into a single text reportedly more than 70 pages longer than either predecessor. Floor action is targeted for the week of July 20. The Senate leaves for its August recess on the 7th, and a defense spending bill is competing for the floor time in between. Senator Cynthia Lummis, the chamber’s lead crypto legislator, has stated the stakes without decoration: this is likely the last chance to get real digital asset legislation on the books before 2030, and failure means another country writes the rules while America spends a decade catching up.
Summary
- The CLARITY Act’s path to passage hinges on winning support from seven Senate Democrats before the August recess.
- Ethics rules, regulator staffing, and DeFi protections remain the biggest obstacles to securing the 60 votes needed.
- A successful vote could reshape U.S. crypto regulation, while failure may delay comprehensive legislation until 2030.
Strip away the drama and the CLARITY Act’s fate reduces to one number: seven. Republicans hold 53 seats, cloture requires 60, and every Republican vote is already assumed. Seven Democrats must cross, and as of this writing, zero have committed. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, the two Democrats who advanced the bill through the Banking Committee on May 14, have both said their committee votes do not guarantee floor support.
Galaxy Research has cut its odds of 2026 passage to 50%, down from 60% earlier in the month and 75% right after the committee markup, citing calendar compression more than substance. Stifel’s chief Washington strategist has written that if the Senate fails to act before recess, the bill’s prospects deteriorate materially.
This piece maps the actual arithmetic: what the bill does, what each unresolved dispute costs in votes, what the fallback looks like if it dies, and why both the optimists and the pessimists have a defensible case with 3 weeks on the clock.
What the bill actually does, in one section
The CLARITY Act would create the first federal statutory framework for digital asset markets. Its core mechanism is a three-bucket taxonomy. Digital commodities, assets that rely on a blockchain for their value and meet decentralization criteria, with Bitcoin the clearest case and Ether and Solana likely included, would fall under Commodity Futures Trading Commission jurisdiction for spot market oversight, an authority the agency has never held in statute. Assets that qualify as investment contracts, tokens sold to fund a centralized team, would remain with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Permitted payment stablecoins would sit with banking regulators under the GENIUS Act framework that Congress completed earlier, after its own bruising fight over state versus federal authority that crypto.news followed through the Senate.
Around that taxonomy, the bill builds a registration regime for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers, applies the Bank Secrecy Act to them for anti-money-laundering purposes, codifies a clearer standard for when the Howey investment contract test applies to a token, and shields software developers from money transmitter liability when they do not custody customer assets, a provision drawn from the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. Lummis points to more than 16 illicit finance safeguards in the text and $150 million in dedicated enforcement funding, including new sanctions authority aimed at Iran and explicit powers for exchanges to freeze illicit funds.
The practical consequence, if it passes, is that exchanges would know which regulator they answer to, token issuers would know which test applies to them, DeFi builders would know they are not money transmitters, and institutional allocators who legally cannot touch unclassified assets, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds chief among them, would gain a defined category to buy. JPMorgan and Standard Chartered have each projected $4 to $8.4 billion in first-year spot XRP ETF inflows alone under passage, and Citi and Standard Chartered carry Bitcoin targets of $143,000 and $150,000 respectively that are contingent on the bill becoming law. The May 14 committee vote offered a small-scale preview: within an hour of the result, Bitcoin jumped to $81,449, and XRP gained 4.5%.
How the bill got here: a two-year procedural ledger
The distance already traveled is worth recording, because it explains why supporters treat this window as unrepeatable.
The House passed its version, H.R. 3633, on July 17, 2025, by 294 to 134, the strongest bipartisan congressional vote on crypto in history, with provisions from Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s Securities Clarity Act and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act folded into the text. The bill then entered the Senate, where jurisdiction split between two committees with overlapping turf. Banking handled the securities side; Agriculture, which oversees the CFTC, handled the commodities side. The two tracks proceeded separately for most of a year.
The Senate Banking Committee advanced its text on May 14, 2026, by 15 to 9, with all 13 Republicans joined by Gallego and Alsobrooks, both of whom attached explicit caveats that committee support did not commit them on the floor. Senator Lummis called it the most consequential Senate action on crypto regulation ever taken. The Agriculture Committee’s version cleared on strictly partisan lines, which is why the merged draft required months of member-level negotiation instead of a staff-level splice. The bill was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar as Calendar No. 423 on June 1, making it formally eligible for floor consideration at any moment leadership chooses.
Since then, the record is a sequence of missed markers. The White House floated July 4 as a signing target in May; the Senate left for its state work period on June 29 with the bill untouched. A tentative bipartisan ethics framework reached in May came apart in June when Republicans and White House officials withdrew from the state attorney general enforcement mechanism. Emergency leadership meetings were reported in late June to salvage the effort. More than 200 organizations, spanning exchanges, startups, and trade associations, sent coordinated letters urging a floor vote, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has pressed publicly for action. Galaxy Digital, in the most concrete expression of institutional conviction available, placed a $10 million prediction market position on 2026 passage back when its own research desk still quoted 60% odds. Polymarket has traded the question between 59-72% across the spring before drifting toward the coin-flip consensus.
That ledger supports both readings of the moment. Optimists see a bill that has cleared every gate it has actually faced, usually by comfortable margins. Pessimists see a bill that has cleared every gate except the one that requires opposition votes, and has now spent two months parked in front of it.
Dispute one: the ethics wall
Every path to 7 Democratic votes runs through a single provision that does not yet exist in agreed form: a conflict-of-interest rule barring senior government officials, up to and including the president, from holding business interests in the crypto industry while in office.
The demand is not abstract. President Trump’s crypto exposure, estimated at $2.3 billion across the TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins, the family’s involvement in World Liberty Financial, and Bitcoin mining ventures, means the officeholder who would sign the bill is also the individual most directly affected by its ethics language. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said at Consensus Miami in May that the bill will not get approved in the Senate without the provision. Senator Elizabeth Warren has argued the latest draft contains nothing addressing the conflict. Gallego has promised to do everything he can to crack down on what he called corrupt dealings. These are not fringe positions within the caucus; they are the price of admission.
The White House position, articulated by crypto adviser Patrick Witt, is that ethics rules must apply across the board, from the president to the most junior official, and that language singling out one officeholder is unacceptable. Between those positions, negotiators have tried and discarded several mechanisms. An amendment from Senator Chris Van Hollen that would have barred senior officials from crypto business interests failed in committee on a near party-line vote. A tentative framework involving state attorney general enforcement collapsed when Republicans and the White House backed away, and a narrowed substitute placing enforcement solely with the US Attorney General was rejected by Democrats as circular, since the Attorney General serves at the president’s pleasure. Republicans floated impeachment as the constitutional remedy for presidential ethics violations, an offer Democrats declined as no remedy at all.
Industry figures close to the talks say the ethics agreement is the key that unlocks everything else, and that if ethics closes, the rest of the bill comes together quickly. That is probably right, and it is also the problem. The dispute is not about crypto policy, where the two sides are by most accounts 80-85% aligned. It is about whether a sitting president’s family business gets carved around or constrained, a question on which neither side can move without paying a visible political price.
Dispute two: the agencies that would run the new regime
A second standoff has grown from a staffing footnote into a potential statutory switch. The SEC and CFTC would both receive expanded mandates under the bill, and both currently operate with vacant commissioner seats. The White House and Senate Democrats have spent weeks trading blame over nominations for the minority seats, and some Agriculture Committee Democrats have made agency staffing a condition of their floor support.
Senator Amy Klobuchar has sharpened that condition into an amendment that would block new CFTC rules from taking effect until at least four commissioners are confirmed. In effect, the amendment would make the entire regulatory framework the bill creates contingent on a nominations process the bill does not control. CFTC Chair Selig pushed back on July 9, arguing the agency’s statute requires no quorum for rulemaking and that the bill is being derailed by matters extraneous to its substance. He is right about the statute and beside the point about the politics: for Democrats skeptical of handing a lightly staffed, Republican-led CFTC a new industry to supervise, the amendment is leverage, and leverage is the only currency that matters at 55 votes.
Dispute three: the developer shield and the law enforcement split
The third fight cuts across party lines. Section 604, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act language, would protect developers of decentralized software from money transmitter classification when no centralized intermediary controls customer assets. The DeFi industry treats the provision as existential, and it received an unexpected boost on July 8 when Senator Ron Wyden, no reflexive friend of the industry, wrote to Senate leadership urging that the BRCA be preserved in any floor text.
Law enforcement organizations see it differently. The National Sheriffs’ Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the National District Attorneys’ Association have raised objections that the shield could complicate illicit finance prosecutions, and the White House Crypto Council has hosted them directly to negotiate. Several Democrats have said plainly they will not vote yes until law enforcement signals its concerns are addressed. The split within the enforcement community itself, between officials who want the bill’s new funding and sanctions tools and those who fear the developer shield, has become its own subplot, one crypto.news examined as the vote approached. Wyden’s letter matters precisely because it gives cover on the civil liberties flank while the law enforcement flank is negotiated separately.
The calendar is the real opponent
None of these disputes is individually unsolvable. The bill’s true adversary is time, and the schedule deserves to be spelled out.
The Senate returned from its state work period on July 13 with three working weeks before the August 7 recess. The first week is partly claimed by the defense spending bill. The merged CLARITY text, once released, needs a motion to proceed, floor debate, an amendment process that will relitigate ethics, staffing, and Section 604 in public, and a cloture vote at 60. If it clears, the House must then act on whatever the Senate produced. House Agriculture digital assets subcommittee chair Dusty Johnson has promised a fast companion vote, and House Financial Services chair French Hill has previewed the same posture, meaning a Senate-passed bill could reach the president on a single House vote without a conference committee. That is real, but it assumes the Senate text stays close enough to the House version that Republican whips can sell it, another constraint the drafters must respect while simultaneously buying Democratic votes.
After the recess, the math changes character. Members return in September to a midterm campaign already in motion, and controversial 60-vote bills do not move in October of an election year. That is why Lummis frames the window as now or 2030: a new Congress means new committee drafts, new markups, and, depending on the midterms, possibly a chamber with no interest in the project at all. As crypto.news reported, even the downstream steps carry fresh uncertainty, with House Republican infighting slowing that chamber and the president holding up an unrelated bipartisan housing bill over his voting rules agenda, a reminder that a signature is not automatic even after passage.
The case that it passes, and the case that it dies
The optimist’s case rests on alignment and incentive. On substance, negotiators are most of the way there; the merged draft’s added consumer protections are designed specifically to give Democrats something to claim. The industry’s political machine, with Fairshake-affiliated committees holding roughly $193 million entering the year and Coinbase and Ripple contributing $25 million each, gives moderate Democrats in competitive states a concrete reason not to be the vote that killed the bill.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, a former Banking Committee staffer who knows the gate count precisely, said in early July she still expects passage this summer. And the ethics dispute, for all its heat, has a known landing zone: uniform rules with a phased enforcement mechanism, the structure analysts at TD Cowen have flagged as the available off-ramp. When a deal has one sticking point, and both sides know the compromise shape, deals tend to close when the deadline is real. This deadline is real.
The pessimist’s case rests on revealed behavior. Every prior deadline has slipped: the July 4 signing target the White House floated in May died quietly, the tentative ethics framework from May collapsed in June, and negotiations that insiders described as close have now been close for 8 weeks. The Democrats being asked to cross are being asked to hand the current administration a signature legislative win, ratify a regulatory structure its appointees will implement, and accept ethics language the White House has veto power over, all while the president’s family holds billions in the assets being legislated. That is a heavy lift for 7 members of an opposition party in an election year, and the safest individual choice for each of them is to demand one more concession until the clock solves the problem. Galaxy’s drift from 75-50% is just that logic expressed as a number.
Both cases share one observation: the merged draft’s release is the last genuine information event before the vote itself. If the text contains a real ethics mechanism that Gallego and Alsobrooks can defend publicly, the whip count moves within days. If it punts, the punt is the answer.
What the market has already priced, and what it has not
The trading question underneath the politics is how much of a CLARITY outcome is already in prices, and the evidence points to less than the headlines suggest.
The clean natural experiment is May 14. The committee vote was telegraphed for weeks, the whip count was known, and passage was expected. Prices still moved sharply on the result, Bitcoin to $81,449 within the hour and XRP up 4.5% on the day, which says the market was assigning meaningful probability to failure even at a gate the bill was favored to clear. If a 15-to-9 committee vote was worth several percentage points, a 60-vote floor passage, the gate the market has watched slip for 2 months, is worth considerably more, and the asymmetry runs in both directions. A bill priced at 50% that passes should produce roughly the mirror image of a bill priced at 50% that dies.
The second-order effects are less symmetric. Passage would trigger mechanical flows with published estimates attached: the $4 to $8.4 billion first-year ETF inflow projections for XRP alone assume allocator categories, pension funds, sovereign funds, and insurance portfolios that currently cannot hold unclassified assets at all. Those buyers do not front-run legislation; their mandates activate on enactment, which is why the inflow case survives even if traders fully price the vote beforehand.
Failure, by contrast, produces no forced selling. It removes a catalyst without creating an obligation, which is why the bearish scenario for most large caps is a grind lower on faded expectations, not a crash, with the notable exception of assets like XRP where a specific institutional unlock has been the centerpiece of the 2026 thesis.
The third variable is the broader tape. This entire negotiation is unfolding inside the worst crypto market since 2022, with digital assets posting a third consecutive quarterly loss in Q2, Bitcoin trading near $62,000, and total market capitalization down $2.3 trillion over 8 weeks at the June trough. A weak market cuts both ways politically.
It weakens the industry’s swagger in Washington, but it also lowers the temperature of the enrichment critique, since it is harder to argue the bill is a giveaway to a booming sector when the sector is visibly bleeding. Whether that helps or hurts with the 7 persuadables is unknowable, but it is one more way in which the CLARITY vote and the market are pricing each other in real time.
What fills the void if the bill dies
The fallback framework already exists, and its limits are the strongest argument the bill’s supporters have. The SEC has formalized an administrative regime known as Regulation Crypto, including a fundraising exemption that Chair Paul Atkins has explicitly described as a bridge to the CLARITY Act. The CFTC continues to stretch its existing derivatives authority toward spot-adjacent products.
Together they amount to a workable de facto system, which is precisely the danger: administrative frameworks are reversible by the next commission without a vote of Congress, and every market participant pricing regulatory certainty into valuations is pricing an asset that a future administration can repossess.
The market consequences of failure would be uneven. Assets whose institutional story depends on classification, XRP being the canonical case, would lose their largest identified catalyst, and as crypto.news noted when the July 4 target slipped, the token’s key support levels already trade in the shadow of the Senate calendar. Bitcoin, already wrapped in ETFs and commodity treatment, needs the bill least.
The stablecoin sector keeps the GENIUS Act either way, though the adjacent fight over yield, the $6 trillion standoff between banks and crypto that crypto.news has covered, would continue under rules the industry considers unfinished. Exchanges and DeFi builders would return to jurisdiction-shopping, and the comparison that stings most would be Europe, where MiCA’s licensed perimeter is already fully operational, and the question of what a token is has a written answer.
The three tells worth watching
Between now and August 7, three signals will resolve most of the uncertainty. First, the ethics language in the merged draft, specifically whether it contains an enforcement mechanism independent of presidential appointees, because that single design choice is what Gallego and Alsobrooks have said their votes depend on.
Second, whether Majority Leader Thune actually schedules floor time in the week of July 20, since leadership does not burn scarce floor days on bills expected to fail cloture. Third, any public movement from the roughly 10 Democrats considered persuadable, with particular attention to members who took crypto-aligned money in competitive races.
The CLARITY Act has completed more of the legislative journey than any market structure bill in American crypto history: a 294 to 134 House vote, a 15 to 9 committee vote, calendar placement, and now a merged text on the runway. What remains is the hardest 100 meters in American lawmaking, a 60-vote sprint through an ethics minefield with a stopwatch running. 7 Democrats hold the outcome, the deadline is 26 days away, and for once in this industry the phrase last chance is not marketing. It is the Senate schedule.
Stablecoin volume hit a record $1.79 trillion in June, even as the tokens’ total supply shrank. The split captures a market pricing crypto for a downturn while its usage keeps climbing.
A Bitwise report, Visa’s on-chain data, and new ownership figures point the same way. Stablecoin transfers and prediction markets hit records even as the Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index fell 15.4%.
Prices Fell, But the Plumbing Kept Growing
The second quarter was crypto’s third straight losing quarter, the longest run since 2022. Spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds posted their worst quarter of outflows. On-chain activity and trading volume slipped.
Yet the Bitwise report argues the market has it backwards. Crypto is being priced for a bear market, it says, even though the industry is roughly twice its 2022 size. Deeper liquidity and more institutions now sit on-chain.
The gap shows up in the fundamentals. Measured against the 2022 low, Ethereum (ETH) transaction activity is up about 13 times. Value locked in decentralized finance has climbed more than 60%, and stablecoin assets have roughly doubled.
Prices still lagged. The flagship crypto index fund lost ground, with eight of its 10 holdings in the red.
That divide has reopened the question of whether the market has already found the bear market bottom.
Stablecoin Volume and Derivatives Led the Quarter
Stablecoins settled about 2.3 times Visa’s payment volume over the past year, Bitwise said. In June, transfers reached the $1.79 trillion record, according to Visa Onchain Analytics. Rising institutional stablecoin volume kept settlement near all-time highs.
A shrinking stablecoin supply once signaled trouble. Terra’s 2022 collapse erased tens of billions and froze the market. This time supply eased while transfers set a record, a very different backdrop.
USD Coin (USDC) handled about two-thirds of that volume. Regulated dollars are taking share as institutions lean in.
Trading told a similar story. June spot volume across major exchanges fell roughly 5% from May, while derivatives volume rose about 4%. Active traders stayed engaged even as casual buyers stepped back.
Tokenized Assets and Prediction Markets Set Records
Tokenized real-world assets climbed 50.3% this year to $32.89 billion, the report said. Prediction market volume hit a record $43.2 billion in the quarter, close to 18 times its level a year earlier.
Crypto equities held up too. The Bitwise Crypto Innovators 30 Index rose 30.6%. Apps such as Hyperliquid, PancakeSwap, and Aave each earned close to $900 million in revenue over the past year.
Advisers increasingly favor stablecoins and tokenization over direct Bitcoin bets. Individuals still hold about two-thirds of Bitcoin supply.
However, institutions and funds bought roughly 829,000 BTC in 2025, while retail wallets shed about 696,000, according to River.
Bitwise framed the split between price and progress as the setup for the next cycle.
“That foundation won’t stop the winter, but it determines what grows in the spring,” Matt Hougan wrote.
The next few quarters will test whether usage pulls prices up or weak prices sap momentum. For now, the data shows an industry still growing while its market value waits to catch up.
The post Crypto Bear Market? These Reports Say the Industry Has Never Been Stronger appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Jito has proposed a governance overhaul that would direct 100% of the DAO’s JTX revenue share toward open-market JTO buybacks and permanent token burns through at least Q4 2027.
Summary
- Jito has proposed using DAO revenue for JTO buybacks and permanent token burns through Q4 2027.
- JIP-38 would place most protocol revenue under DAO control, with JTO holders governing allocations.
- JTO rose as much as 8% after the governance proposal was unveiled, according to crypto.news.
According to a governance proposal published by Jito on July 13, the protocol has introduced JIP-38, which would formally classify Jito as a token-centric network where nearly all major network revenue flows to the decentralized autonomous organization and remains under the control of JTO token holders.
The proposal triggered an immediate market reaction, with Jito (JTO) climbing as much as 8% shortly after its release, according to data from crypto.news.
Revenue would be redirected to JTO holders
Under JIP-38, Jito proposes using the DAO’s entire share of JTX revenue to buy JTO tokens on the open market before permanently removing those tokens from circulation. According to the proposal, this arrangement would remain in place for at least one year, extending through the fourth quarter of 2027.
One exception remains in the framework. The proposal states that 20% of JTX platform fees would continue to be reinvested into JTX development rather than being allocated to buybacks and burns. Jito said the remaining major revenue streams would continue flowing through the DAO under governance controlled by JTO holders.
To carry out the program, the proposal calls for buybacks to be executed automatically through a Rev Splitter mechanism overseen by the project’s Dev Council. Alongside the automation process, Jito plans to update its governance documentation so the protocol’s operating model formally recognizes the token-centric structure.
According to JIP-38, existing revenue allocation commitments would be completed before a comprehensive review of protocol fee streams takes place in Q4 2027.
During that review, governance participants would evaluate the performance of token buybacks, ecosystem incentives, and other capital allocation methods before JTO holders vote on the network’s next long-term revenue framework.
Governance changes extend beyond token burns
Beyond the buyback program, JIP-38 outlines several operational changes intended to support the new revenue structure. According to the proposal, the Rev Splitter would become progressively more automated while governance records would be updated to match the revised economic model.
Jito also stated in the proposal that the framework is designed so value generated across the network accrues to the JTO token instead of external corporate entities. Any future changes to revenue allocation after Q4 2027 would require approval through governance voting by JTO holders.
The proposal arrives as Jito continues expanding its presence across the Solana ecosystem. Earlier this year, as previously reported by crypto.news, 21Shares launched the 21Shares Jito Staked SOL ETP (JSOL) on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris.
The issuer said the product provides regulated exchange-traded exposure to Solana through JitoSOL while embedding staking rewards, allowing investors to access the asset through traditional brokers and banks without managing wallets or staking infrastructure.
Institutional support for the protocol has also grown over the past year. As previously reported by crypto.news, Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) crypto division invested $50 million in Jito to help expand the Solana staking protocol’s ecosystem.
The investment included an allocation of JTO tokens to the venture firm, adding another high-profile backer as the protocol seeks approval for its latest governance proposal.
Strategy has raised $466.7 million through fresh MSTR stock sales while leaving its Bitcoin holdings unchanged at 843,775 BTC for the week ending July 12.
Summary
- Strategy raises $466.7 million through MSTR stock sales.
- Company keeps Bitcoin holdings unchanged at 843,775 BTC.
- Standard Chartered maintains $100,000 Bitcoin target despite treasury concerns.
According to a Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Michael Saylor-led Strategy sold 4,818,781 Class A MSTR shares between July 6 and July 12 through its at-the-market (ATM) program, generating approximately $466.7 million in net proceeds. Despite the capital raise, the company reported that it did not purchase or sell any Bitcoin during the reporting period.
The filing showed Strategy continued to hold 843,775 BTC, acquired for about $63.69 billion at an average purchase price of $75,476 per Bitcoin, excluding fees and expenses. Following the latest issuance, the company still has roughly $23.79 billion available under its MSTR ATM stock program.
Strategy keeps Bitcoin holdings unchanged after recent sale
Fresh SEC disclosures also showed Strategy held approximately $3 billion in U.S. dollar reserves as of July 12. According to the filing, the cash is intended to cover preferred stock dividends and interest payments on the company’s debt. The reported balance also includes expected proceeds from ATM share sales that had not settled by the reporting date.
The company further disclosed that it did not repurchase any shares under its existing buyback programs during the same week.
The latest filing follows Strategy’s $216 million Bitcoin sale disclosed the previous week, only the second BTC sale in the company’s history. At the time, the company said the proceeds would be used to fund dividends tied to its STRC preferred stock and other digital credit securities. After that transaction, Strategy’s Bitcoin balance fell to 843,775 BTC, where it has remained through the latest reporting period.
Earlier reports also noted that Strategy has authorization to sell up to $1.25 billion worth of Bitcoin under its BTC Monetization Program, a development that has drawn close attention from market participants even though the company has not announced additional BTC sales.
Standard Chartered says treasury uncertainty drove recent weakness
Attention around Strategy’s Bitcoin plans increased after Executive Chairman Michael Saylor posted the company’s familiar Bitcoin acquisition chart on July 12 with the message, “Orange dots tell only part of the story.” As crypto.news reported earlier, the post did not confirm whether Strategy had bought, sold, or held Bitcoin during the latest reporting week.
Crypto.news also noted that Strategy’s public Bitcoin tracker continued to show 843,775 BTC, matching the latest SEC filing. The company typically reports treasury activity through regulatory filings, meaning social media posts do not establish whether a transaction has occurred or indicate its direction.
The latest disclosure comes as Bitcoin has climbed back above $64,000 after Standard Chartered reaffirmed its $100,000 price target for the end of 2026. In a research note, the bank said recent weakness in Bitcoin was driven largely by uncertainty surrounding Strategy’s evolving treasury approach rather than by any deterioration in Bitcoin’s underlying fundamentals.
Standard Chartered added that the recent pullback should not be interpreted as a change to its long-term bullish outlook for the cryptocurrency.
Reed Smith, the global law firm with more than 30 offices across North America, Europe and Asia, has introduced an automated compliance platform aimed at helping crypto firms prepare for the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regime as oversight intensifies. The tool, called “Aquarius,” is designed to streamline parts of the MiCA workload while keeping legal review integrated into the process.
Reed Smith says Aquarius can automate tasks such as crypto-asset classification, regulatory white paper generation, due diligence workflows and environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures. The firm also plans to extend the platform to other compliance environments beyond the EU, including the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Key takeaways
- Reed Smith’s Aquarius platform targets MiCA implementation by automating classification, documentation, due diligence and ESG disclosures.
- The rollout comes as the EU moves deeper into full MiCA enforcement following the end of the July 1 transition period.
- Even with harmonized rules, authorization and ongoing supervision—especially for custodians—remain operationally demanding.
- Policymakers are also discussing possible changes to MiCA’s stablecoin framework, including rules for non-euro-denominated issuers.
Aquarius aims to reduce compliance friction as MiCA matures
MiCA is intended to create a consistent licensing and rulebook for digital asset service providers across the EU’s 27 member states, covering areas such as consumer protection and operational requirements. Reed Smith’s stated goal with Aquarius is to make entry into the European market—or expansion within it—more manageable by combining automated workflows with legal expertise.
The timing is notable. Earlier this month, the EU’s MiCA transition period ended on July 1, after which firms could no longer rely on temporary national exemptions tied to countries that had previously adopted longer grandfathering arrangements. For companies that had planned compliance in phases, the end of that window effectively tightened the deadline pressure and increased the urgency to demonstrate readiness under the full framework.
For operators, this matters because MiCA compliance is not a one-time checkbox. Firms must be able to show they meet licensing criteria and operational expectations, and they must be prepared for ongoing regulatory attention as supervisory activities ramp up.
MiCA authorization is only the start for custodians
Even though MiCA harmonizes the regulatory landscape, authorization still appears challenging for many service providers. Last week, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched a supervisory review of authorized crypto-asset service providers. According to earlier reporting referenced in the source material, ESMA’s focus includes how custodians safeguard client assets and how they manage operational risks.
That emphasis aligns with industry concerns around the practical burden of compliance. Sebastien Dessimoz, co-founder and managing partner of Taurus (a digital asset infrastructure provider), is cited as saying that a MiCA license is “only the beginning” for custodians. He points to continued scrutiny over cybersecurity, governance and the ability to protect client assets—issues that do not end at the moment a firm receives authorization.
In other words, compliance strategy increasingly becomes a continual operational process: firms must maintain controls, demonstrate effectiveness over time and ensure that risk management keeps pace with both technology and regulatory expectations.
Potential stablecoin rule revisions add uncertainty for issuers
Beyond licensing, the regulatory picture may be shifting for specific segments of the market. Reports suggest that EU policymakers are considering revisions to MiCA’s stablecoin framework, particularly rules governing the issuance of stablecoins that are not denominated in euros.
As cited in the source material, Euronews attributes part of the impetus for the discussions to the United States’ GENIUS Act, which created a federal framework for payment stablecoins. While the details of any EU changes were not specified in the source excerpt, the implication for market participants is clear: stablecoin issuers may need to plan for evolving requirements, especially where cross-border regulatory influence could reshape how issuers are classified and supervised.
For companies preparing documentation, disclosures or product roadmaps, this type of policy uncertainty can materially affect timelines and internal sign-offs—particularly if compliance artifacts must be updated to reflect shifting interpretations or amended standards.
Why automated compliance tools are gaining attention
Reed Smith positions Aquarius as a way to combine standardized processes with legal oversight, targeting repetitive and documentation-heavy steps that can slow down onboarding and expansion. If implemented effectively, automation could help reduce time-to-readiness by making it easier for firms to assemble core compliance outputs—such as classification materials, regulatory white paper drafts, and due diligence documentation—before legal teams finalize and validate them.
At the same time, automation does not eliminate the underlying regulatory obligations. The ESMA supervisory review referenced in the source underscores that regulators are looking beyond initial submissions to real-world custody practices, operational controls and risk management behavior.
Readers should watch how platforms like Aquarius are used in practice: whether firms treat automation as a way to build defensible compliance packages and then continuously monitor operations, or whether they simply accelerate paperwork without improving the controls supervisors expect.
As MiCA supervision expands and stablecoin-specific discussions continue, the next phase of compliance will likely be defined by two tracks: ongoing custody and operational scrutiny from regulators, and potential adjustments to stablecoin rules that could ripple into disclosures and product structures. Firms should monitor both developments while validating that their compliance systems can adapt quickly as requirements evolve.
Google Gemini AI just framed Bitcoin current price position as a coiled spring rather than a broken asset. The model predicts $120,000 to $150,000 by the end of 2026, treating the current $64,000 level as the exact setup that precedes a major liquidity break.
The bull case is built on 3 compounding forces rather than a single catalyst. Bitcoin sits near $64,000 today, and the model opens by describing the setup as coiled for a major liquidity break, which is a specific framing that implies the move will be fast and sharp rather than gradual once it begins.
Compounding spot ETF inflows are the first force, with institutional demand continuing to absorb supply at a pace that steadily reduces what is available on the open market.
Expanding corporate treasury adoption is the second force, with more companies following the Strategy playbook and treating Bitcoin as a core balance sheet reserve rather than a speculative bet.
The third force is a favorable macroeconomic shift toward global rate cuts, which loosens liquidity conditions and pushes capital toward higher returning assets as cash yields decline.
Together these 3 forces are described as institutionalizing Bitcoin as a core macroeconomic asset, which continues to dry up liquid supply and sets the stage for a supply shock rally over the next 18 months.
The model does not pin everything on a single legislative event or exact timing window, instead treating the structural forces already in motion as sufficient to push price toward that $120,000 to $150,000 target by year end.
The bear case is the starkest downside scenario in any Bitcoin prediction covered in this series. If persistent regulatory friction or a broader global recession triggers aggressive risk off liquidation across traditional markets, the model sees a structural breakdown toward $40,000 to $45,000.
That bear case is notably more severe than the $55,000 to $60,000 floors named in most other predictions in this series, reflecting how seriously Gemini treats the tail risk of a genuine macro shock rather than just a crypto specific pullback.
Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC Quietly Builds A Base While The Market Waits For The Next Liquidity Break
The daily chart shows Bitcoin at $64,135 after a recovery off the June lows near $58,000 that has been building steadily over the past 2 weeks.
Price has pushed back above $64,000 on this candle, which is the highest close since late May and represents a series of higher lows forming since the June bottom.
That pattern of higher lows combined with relatively consistent green sessions is the most encouraging technical development this chart has shown in months. Resistance sits first at $68,000, the level that capped multiple push attempts throughout May and June, with a much heavier ceiling near $80,000 where the most extended rally of 2026 ultimately stalled.
The $40,000 to $45,000 bear case floor sits well below current price but is not so remote that it can be dismissed, given how far Bitcoin has already fallen from its October highs near $127,000.
Support holds at $59,000, the most recent cycle low that was tested and held in late June. The broader structure still shows lower highs stretching all the way back to October, meaning the dominant downtrend has not reversed on any technical basis yet.
Momentum on the daily candles looks constructive and improving, with the past week delivering some of the cleaner green closes seen anywhere on this chart since the April rally attempt.
The supply shock framing Gemini uses fits what the chart is showing in one important way, price is not breaking down despite sustained selling pressure over many months, which suggests a floor may genuinely be forming. A clean break and hold above $68,000 would be the first real signal that the coiled spring Gemini is describing has finally started to release.
Here is What Gemini AI Predicts About LiquidChain
Most people will only see this rotation in hindsight. The smart money has already moved.
Large caps are not failing. They are out of room. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP keep pressing against the same ceilings with nothing breaking through. Every macro tailwind has a new arrival date. Every institutional wave lands next quarter. Sitting in assets where the upside depends entirely on someone else’s decision is not a strategy. It is a waiting room.
Capital that has survived enough cycles knows one thing. It moves before the destination becomes obvious.
Early-stage infrastructure plays by completely different rules. A small market cap means that a modest rotation can produce dramatic price movement. The returns live in the gap between what something is genuinely worth and what the market has assigned it so far. That gap exists only while the project remains undiscovered. Once found, it closes permanently.
Multi-chain fragmentation is bleeding DeFi every single day. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana exist as completely isolated systems. No native bridge between them. Every user crossing those boundaries absorbs the cost directly in fees, slippage, and failed transactions. Every single crossing. Every single time.
Gemini AI predicts LiquidChain fixes that entirely. All 3 networks within a single execution layer. One deployment reaches everything. Zero cross-chain tax on any interaction.
The presale is at $0.01454 with just over $890,000 raised. The market has not found this yet. That is exactly the point.
Execution is unproven. Adoption is unknown. Established assets offer a predictable ride toward a ceiling everyone can already see. LiquidChain is an entry point that disappears the moment the market looks up.
The post Google Gemini AI Predicts Shocking Bitcoin Price by End of 2026 appeared first on Cryptonews.
Grayscale says the crypto market is increasingly rewarding tokens with real fundamentals, and financial protocols led by Hyperliquid (HYPE) are pulling far ahead of meme coins.
The asset manager attributes the divide to a crypto bear market and rising institutional adoption. Both forces are separating revenue-generating projects from speculative tokens with little underlying value.
Why the Crypto Market Rewards Fundamentals Now
Grayscale built its case with its Crypto Sectors framework, a set of indexes developed with FTSE Russell. The system sorts more than 150 protocols by function and is reassessed each quarter. Grayscale’s recent research groups tokens by what they do, not the story around them.
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The Financials Crypto Sector covers protocols that deliver financial transactions and services on-chain. Their fundamentals track the adoption of stablecoins, tokenized assets, and other blockchain use cases.
Stablecoin settlement volume recently hit fresh records, reinforcing that demand. The gap widens in a downturn, when tokens without revenue fall hardest.
Hyperliquid Pulls Ahead as Memecoins Fade
Since the start of 2024, the Financials Crypto Sector has gained roughly 15%, while the Consumer and Culture Crypto Sector has fallen about 75%. That leaves financial tokens ahead of their consumer peers by about 90 percentage points.
By contrast, the lagging sector is dominated by meme coins like Dogecoin (DOGE), the 2013 original, which Grayscale says now make up around 85% of its market value.
Grayscale singles out Hyperliquid as the standout. The on-chain exchange routes trading fees into an assistance fund that buys back HYPE, tying the token’s value to actual platform usage.
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token has climbed from an all-time low near $3.81 in late 2024 to a June 2026 peak of $76.70. It traded near $63 on Monday, up about 29% on the year, and ranks 10th by market value.
“Crypto markets are rewarding tokens with strong fundamentals. These include Hyperliquid and other leading financial applications of blockchains,” Grayscale noted.
Some fund managers make the same case. Tushar Jain, chief investment officer of Multicoin Capital, says leading protocols should be judged like companies. His firm holds HYPE and sees Hyperliquid leading in on-chain derivatives.
“Solana is a business. Hyperliquid is a business. They are meant to go and generate cash flow, and that is the primary thing that gives those tokens value…” Jain said in a recent interview.
Other revenue-focused projects have leaned into the same shift, including a recent revenue-funded token burn. Whether that lead holds may hinge on consumer tokens building real income. For now, Grayscale’s data suggests fundamentals, not speculation, are setting the market’s winners apart.
The post Grayscale Says the Crypto Market Is Rewarding a Different Kind of Token appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Coinbase Ventures maintained its lead among crypto-focused venture capital investors in the first half of 2026, completing the most funding deals in CryptoRank’s dataset. The Coinbase exchange’s corporate VC arm recorded 30 deals from January through June, edging out Animoca Brands (19), a16z (18), and Tether (15), according to CryptoRank’s funding analytics.
While top investors kept showing up, the wider market remains under pressure. Total funding for crypto companies dropped to $1.4 billion in June, down from $3.8 billion in April—an indication that deal activity is still more fragile than headline counts alone suggest. Even so, July brought a modest rebound, with $456 million raised across 12 funding rounds so far.
Key takeaways
- Coinbase Ventures led deal counts in H1 2026 with 30 investments, followed by Animoca Brands (19), a16z (18), and Tether (15), per CryptoRank.
- Funding volumes remain depressed: June totals fell to $1.4 billion (down from $3.8 billion in April), alongside fewer rounds (61 in June vs. 89 in May).
- DeFi, payments, and AI dominate VC interest over the past year, collectively accounting for hundreds of fundraising rounds.
- Investor participation narrowed: unique investors fell to 242 in June from 452 in October 2025.
- Geography is uneven: US-based VCs led in capital deployed over six months, while a large share of funds came from undisclosed locations.
Coinbase Ventures stays on top as deal volume softens
Across the first half of 2026, the most active crypto-focused investors by number of deals were concentrated among a handful of firms. Coinbase Ventures’ 30 transactions placed it above Animoca Brands, a16z, and Tether in CryptoRank’s tally.
Looking beyond H1, CryptoRank data shows that Coinbase Ventures also remained highly active over the previous 12 months, completing 75 deals—more than any other listed contender. Animoca Brands followed with 40 deals, YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) with 39, GSR with 31, and a16z with 30.
Those sustained activity levels stand in contrast to softer market conditions. Crypto VC fundraising fell to $1.4 billion in June, down 63% from $3.8 billion in April. Deal counts declined as well: June saw 61 fundraising rounds, compared with 89 in May.
Still, the pattern is not uniformly downward. CryptoRank data indicates a slight recovery relative to earlier in the year: April’s totals included a two-year low of $698 million across 71 fundraising rounds, and June—while weaker than May—did not repeat that extreme low.
Where the capital goes: DeFi, payments, and AI lead
Crypto VC interest over the past year skewed heavily toward three categories: decentralized finance, payments, and AI-linked crypto initiatives. According to CryptoRank, DeFi protocols accounted for 216 fundraising rounds, payments startups logged 131 rounds, and AI-crypto companies raised through 128 rounds.
Infrastructure also remained a consistent focus. CryptoRank reports 110 funding rounds for infrastructure providers during the same period, while all other sectors recorded fewer than 100 rounds.
For investors and founders, this distribution matters because it suggests VC capital is still flowing toward applications and rails rather than exclusively chasing speculative narratives. Even during a period of reduced fundraising totals, the categories attracting the most rounds tend to have clearer product pathways—whether that’s enabling on-chain finance, improving transaction and settlement use cases, or integrating AI capabilities into crypto systems.
Shifts inside the portfolio: Coinbase Ventures’ thematic exposure
Coinbase Ventures’ participation over the last six months shows a thematic pattern aligned with broader market preferences, though with a degree of specificity. CryptoRank data indicates Coinbase Ventures took part in:
- Seven investment rounds linked to payment protocols
- Four rounds supporting DeFi projects
- Three rounds tied to infrastructure and real-world asset tokenization
That mix reflects a VC approach that emphasizes core crypto primitives and monetizable use cases. At the same time, the relatively small number of rounds in each subcategory (for Coinbase Ventures’ own activity) highlights that even top investors are not scaling uniformly—rather, they are selecting fewer bets while still covering key themes.
Fewer participants, different geography, and what to watch next
Even as deal counts remained steady for certain lead investors, the broader ecosystem saw reduced participation. CryptoRank shows the number of unique investors in June fell to 242 from 452 unique investors in October 2025. That contraction suggests a more selective capital environment: fewer players are deploying money, even if some large funds continue to originate deals.
Geography provides another lens on how VC behavior is concentrating. Over the past six months, US-based VCs contributed $5.8 billion, while Australia-based VCs deployed $3.6 billion. CryptoRank also reports that more than $11.6 billion was invested from undisclosed locations, underscoring how opaque parts of the fundraising landscape remain.
With July activity already showing $456 million raised across 12 funding rounds so far, the immediate question for market participants is whether this qualifies as a durable rebound or merely a short-term uptick. CryptoRank’s June-to-July movement suggests conditions can improve after declines, but the drop in unique investors—and the still-low June fundraising level versus April—signals that conviction and breadth in the VC market may take longer to fully return.
Sam Altman, ChatGPT AI, just put a clean number on SpaceX’s stock price prediction, treating the post-IPO pullback as the entry point rather than a warning sign. The model predicts $225 by year-end 2026, implying roughly 55% upside from where shares sit today, with $250 or more possible if growth accelerates.
The bull case anchors everything to a revenue figure that most investors have not fully processed yet. SpaceX generated $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025, with Starlink contributing approximately 60% of that total, meaning the satellite internet business alone produces more annual revenue than most mid-cap tech companies.
That combination of broadband, aerospace, defense, and AI infrastructure exposure in a single ticker is genuinely rare and is exactly what the model points to when justifying a premium valuation.
Starlink’s subscriber base keeps expanding with recurring revenue that grows more predictable each quarter. SpaceX maintains an unmatched launch cadence that no competitor has come close to matching. Starship continues making progress toward full reusability, and emerging AI infrastructure opportunities tied to satellite connectivity and compute at the edge are adding an entirely new growth layer on top of the existing business.
Together, those factors support renewed momentum after what the model frames as a natural post IPO pullback rather than a fundamental problem with the business.
The bear case names 3 specific risks rather than vague downside concerns. Major Starship delays would undercut the reusability thesis that justifies much of the long-term valuation premium. Continued pressure from AI infrastructure spending on profitability could squeeze margins faster than revenue growth can offset.
And investors rejecting a valuation that remains exceptionally high relative to current sales is the simplest and most immediate risk, since SpaceX went public at a valuation that already priced in years of future growth. Under that scenario, the model sees shares drifting toward $110 to $120 instead.
SpaceX Price Prediction: SpaceX Grinds Toward Its Post IPO Floor With A $225 Target Sitting Far Overhead
The 3-hour chart shows SpaceX at $145.35 after a sharp decline from IPO-week highs near $219, set in mid-June.
That entire move from the IPO spike down to current levels has taken less than a month, which is the kind of violent post IPO repricing that happens when early momentum buyers take profits and retail enthusiasm collides with the reality of a stock priced for perfection.
Price has been grinding lower in a series of lower highs since that June 17 peak, with each bounce attempt setting a new lower high before rolling back over again.
The most recent sessions from July 8 through 10 have been particularly weak, with the stock losing ground steadily and now trading near its lowest level since the IPO opened.
Resistance sits first near $155, the level that capped the most recent bounce attempt in early July, with a heavier ceiling near $173, where the post-peak consolidation zone lived for several days before breaking down. Support holds near $145, the current test zone, and the lowest level this stock has traded since going public.
Below that, no clear technical floor exists on this chart since the IPO history is too short to establish meaningful prior support. The overall pattern here is a classic post IPO distribution, with the stock spending every day since the initial spike working off excess early enthusiasm rather than building any kind of base.
Momentum looks weak and still pointed lower on the 3-hour candles, with sellers maintaining control throughout the most recent trading sessions. For the $225 bull case to become technically relevant, SpaceX first needs to stop making lower highs, reclaim $160, and hold it through a stretch of earnings-driven news flow that confirms the Starlink revenue trajectory the model is relying on.
Don’t Miss Out on Our $1,000 USDT Airdrop on ByBit
LiquidChain Is Catching the Attention of SpaceX holders: ChatGPT AI Predicts It’s the Next 100x
The rotation is already happening. Most people will only see it in hindsight.
Large-cap crypto is not failing. It is capped. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP have been pressing against the same resistance bands for weeks. The macro tailwinds keep getting delayed.
The institutional inflows keep getting pushed to next quarter. Holding assets where the upside depends on catalysts you cannot control is not a strategy. It is waiting.
A capital that has navigated enough cycles does not wait at resistance. It moves before the destination becomes obvious.
Early-stage infrastructure plays operate on different math entirely. A small enough market cap means a modest rotation produces dramatic price movement. The asymmetry exists because the market has not priced in what is being built yet. That gap between current valuation and what the project is actually worth is where the returns come from.
Multi-chain fragmentation costs DeFi real money every single day. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana run completely isolated liquidity systems with no native way to connect them. Every user moving value between ecosystems absorbs that cost directly in fees, slippage, and failed transactions.
LiquidChain collapses all 3 networks into a single execution layer. One deployment. Full ecosystem access. No cross-chain tax on every interaction.
The market has not found this yet. That is the entire point.
The presale is at $0.01454 with just over $820,000 raised. Ground floor is not a marketing phrase here. It is a description of where this actually sits in its lifecycle.
Execution is unproven. Adoption is unknown. Those risks are real and worth naming directly. Established assets offer a smoother ride toward a ceiling that is already visible. This offers an earlier seat at a table that has not been set yet.
Explore the LiquidChain Presale
The post Sam Altman ChatGPT AI Predicts Insane SpaceX Stock Price by End of 2026 appeared first on Cryptonews.
Tokyo-based SBI VC Trade will begin accepting applications Thursday for a Japanese yen-denominated stablecoin lending service offering an initial annualized rate of 3% on JPYSC lent for 12 weeks.
Customers will lend JPYSC to the SBI Holdings subsidiary from Thursday and receive the tokens back with a lending fee at maturity, the company said in a Monday press release. At the advertised rate, the gross return over the 12-week term would be about 0.69%, before tax.
The company said the product pays more than the 0.325% to 1% annual rate SBI cited for ordinary yen deposits. Still, it is not a bank deposit, is not covered by deposit insurance and generally cannot be canceled early.
JPYSC lent to SBI VC Trade will also fall outside statutory asset segregation requirements, meaning customers could lose some or all of their tokens if the company goes bankrupt, according to the release.
The launch gives JPYSC a new use case just weeks after SBI introduced the trust-structured yen stablecoin on June 24, with regulated stablecoins evolving from payments to yield-bearing instruments in Japan. SBI VC Trade previously launched stablecoin lending services in Japan in March for Circle’s dollar-denominated USDC (USDC) stablecoin.
SBI claimed this was the first service to allow Japanese customers to lend their yen-denominated stablecoins in exchange for passive yield.
By offering yields “exceeding” the typical annual rate for yen deposits, SBI anticipates an expansion among yen-denominated stablecoin holders and said the service will be “core” for realizing the future of onchain finance.
JPYSC lending service features. Source: sbivc.co.jp
Solana partnership widens onchain ambitions
SBI is separately building the infrastructure it hopes will eventually move JPYSC beyond its own platform and into a broader market for tokenized assets and cross-border settlement.
SBI Holdings announced a strategic partnership with the Switzerland-based Solana Foundation on Monday, aiming to build a Japanese onchain financial market.
As part of the partnership, the Solana Foundation will join SBI R3 Japan, which will be renamed SBI Solana Global and issue a new growth strategy focused on the yen-backed stablecoin.
The initiative aims to position Japan as a leading hub for onchain finance, while expanding stablecoins and tokenized real-world asset usage across Asia. It also includes building more infrastructure for institutional onchain financial services, cross-border payments and payment infrastructure for AI agents.
Related: Metaplanet explores Bitcoin-backed digital credit with JPYC in Japan
Japanese PM reaffirms support for crypto and Web3 startups: report
The stablecoin lending service’s launch follows positive regulatory signals for Japanese Web3 startups and cryptocurrency companies.
The Japanese government plans to strengthen support for crypto and Web3 startups, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reportedly said during a video address at the WebX 2026 conference.
Some of the promised measures include increased funding from government-backed funds and easing of regulatory requirements.
In May 2025, Takaichi introduced the “Startup Total Power Package,” which outlined policies tied to increased governmental funding to accelerate startups. The package builds on the “Five-Year Startup Development Plan” formulated in 2022, which aims to increase investments in startups to 10 trillion yen by the fiscal year 2027.
In April 2026, the Japanese government amended the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act to classify crypto assets as financial instruments, moving digital assets out of the experimental payments category into the same league as its stock market.
Magazine: Dubai tops Asian crypto hubs, Taiwan passes crypto laws: Asia Express
U.S. President Donald Trump has urged senators to move quickly on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, framing the push as a tribute to the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died over the weekend. The timing matters: the Senate is expected to be in session for only about four more weeks before a month-long August state work period, leaving a narrow window for any major legislation to clear.
Trump’s appeal, posted Monday on Truth Social, highlights Graham’s long-running support for the bill and calls on lawmakers to pass CLARITY “in honor of” the South Carolina senator. Graham, 71, served in the Senate since 2003. Following his death—and reports that another Republican senator, Mitch McConnell, is hospitalized—Republicans’ effective majority has narrowed to 51-47, raising the odds that the bill will need additional Democratic backing to reach the 60 votes typically required in the Senate.
Key takeaways
- Trump urged the Senate to pass the CLARITY Act, citing Lindsey Graham’s support before his death.
- The Senate’s working balance is tighter than before: Republicans are reported at 51-47, making bipartisan support more likely.
- CLARITY is expected to shift regulatory enforcement authority for parts of the digital-asset market from the SEC toward the CFTC.
- Many Senate Democrats have indicated they oppose the bill without additional ethics safeguards related to potential conflicts of interest.
- With only a few weeks left in the current session before August recess, lawmakers have limited time to resolve outstanding objections.
Trump ties CLARITY push to Graham’s legacy
In a Monday Truth Social post, Trump said Graham had been “a big supporter” of the CLARITY Act and called on senators to advance the legislation. The president also referenced the senator’s death, effectively urging legislators to treat the bill’s progress as a commemorative step.
Graham’s record with the CLARITY Act appears less direct than Trump’s framing suggests. In the current Congress, Graham is reported to have not served on the Senate banking committee or the agriculture committee, and he did not cast any votes advancing CLARITY. Cointelegraph previously reported that he did not appear to make public statements specifically supporting CLARITY during the current session. Still, he voted in favor of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in 2025, indicating he has supported certain crypto-related legislative efforts in recent years.
What CLARITY would change for crypto regulation
The central policy bet behind CLARITY is a reallocation of regulatory oversight. The bill is expected to move much of the authority for enforcing digital-asset regulation from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For market participants, that shift matters because it would likely change which regulator leads on enforcement posture, interpretations of market structure, and how compliance expectations are set.
However, the legislative path is not just about jurisdiction—it’s also about trust and process. Senate Democrats have previously signaled they are unlikely to support the legislation without provisions aimed at addressing possible conflicts of interest involving lawmakers and the crypto industry. Some lawmakers have pointed to Trump’s ties to digital asset-related projects, including his memecoin activity, as well as the family’s World Liberty Financial company, as part of the rationale for demanding ethics-related changes before they back the bill.
Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted that this ethics and conflict-of-interest debate is part of why the bill could face resistance on the Senate floor.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethics-democrats-market-structure-clarity-bill-markup
Senate math tightens as leadership and votes are tested
In practical terms, CLARITY’s chances depend on the ability to assemble enough votes quickly. With Graham’s death—and with Mitch McConnell reported hospitalized—Republicans’ current majority has been reduced to 51-47. That arithmetical squeeze increases the likelihood that Democratic support will be necessary to hit the 60-vote threshold.
Cointelegraph reports that it sought comment from the offices of Senators Tim Scott, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Angela Alsobrooks regarding Trump’s remarks but did not receive an immediate response.
Support from within the Republican ranks appears at least partially energized by Trump’s message. Senator Cynthia Lummis, in a Monday post on X, said she supported Trump’s comment and described Graham as “passionate about ensuring that American leadership stayed at the forefront of everything – including digital assets.” Cointelegraph also contacted Lummis’ office to request clarification about Graham’s position on digital assets, but received no immediate reply.
The clock is running before August recess
Even if sentiment shifts, lawmakers still face a calendar constraint. The Senate has around four weeks left in session before a month-long state work period in August. That limited schedule creates pressure to resolve both the political and procedural issues surrounding CLARITY—particularly the ethics concerns that have been signaled by Senate Democrats.
What remains uncertain is whether the bill can be moved fast enough to secure the additional votes required, and whether any amendments or guarantees on conflicts-of-interest questions can satisfy enough skeptics to reach the needed margin. Investors and builders watching U.S. crypto regulation will likely focus on whether the debate turns from jurisdiction alone to the specific standards Democrats demand—since that is where the most durable resistance appears to be forming.
For now, the key question is whether Trump’s public push—and the loss of a major backer—changes the Senate’s willingness to compromise on ethics provisions, or whether the vote count still stalls despite the political momentum. With the legislative window shrinking, the next developments from the Senate floor and committee actions will be the most important indicators of whether CLARITY is headed to passage or remains stuck in partisan friction.
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