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US law-enforcement–linked prosecutors’ groups are asking for targeted changes to the CLARITY Act, a sweeping cryptocurrency market structure bill moving through the US Senate, according to a Politico report published this week.

With the Senate approaching a month-long break, the proposals focus on how the legislation addresses developer-related obligations inside the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act—particularly within provisions tied to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA). The White House’s crypto adviser, Patrick Witt, publicly pushed back on the idea that the administration is aligned with the changes, describing them as far from the Trump administration’s position.

Key takeaways

• Prosecutors’ groups reportedly urged the White House to adjust BRCA provisions in the CLARITY Act, including language aimed at developer conduct and criminal liability.
• White House adviser Patrick Witt said the reported proposals are “not even close” to the administration’s position and suggested the process wasn’t the product of “productive negotiations.”
• Democratic lawmakers have also signaled concerns about ethics rules in the CLARITY Act related to Donald Trump’s crypto investments, intensifying internal opposition.
• The Senate is not scheduled to vote on the bill before a planned summer recess, shrinking the time window for resolution.
• At the policy level, CLARITY’s market structure proposal would shift oversight from the SEC toward the CFTC, a move that would change the enforcement and regulatory toolkit for digital assets.

Prosecutors ask to narrow developer liability language

In a letter to the White House, the National Association of Assistant US Attorneys and the National District Attorneys Association reportedly requested changes to specific provisions regarding developers in the CLARITY Act, Politico reported on Tuesday.

Under the proposal, the groups want adjustments within the BRCA sections that are embedded in the larger CLARITY framework. The reported language would ensure guidelines for developers do not “create, expand, or modify criminal liability under Federal law.”

For developers and compliance teams, this kind of drafting is more than semantic. If regulatory certainty language is read to broaden exposure to federal criminal theories, it can influence how teams document releases, build features, manage tokens and smart contracts, and interpret what actions might be treated as legally risky. Conversely, if the goal is to prevent the bill from being interpreted as expanding criminal liability, it signals an attempt to narrow enforcement hooks that could arise from new obligations.

White House pushback complicates talks

White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt responded to the reports by arguing the proposals are not aligned with the administration’s stance. In a post on X, Witt said the provisions were “not even close” to the Trump administration’s position and implied there had been no “productive negotiations” behind the letter.

Separately, Politico reported that Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has been pressing the White House to address the BRCA before any potential vote on CLARITY.

That sequence matters for the bill’s timing. If lawmakers believe the BRCA language remains unresolved, they may resist moving the bill forward procedurally—especially when opposition from other quarters, such as ethics concerns, remains active.

Ethics controversy and party-level resistance

The CLARITY Act has faced additional headwinds among Democrats, with reported criticism centered on ethics rules related to President Donald Trump’s crypto investments. According to the article coverage referenced in the source material, Trump’s crypto holdings were reported to be worth $1.4 billion in 2025.

Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted that objections are tied to ethics restrictions within the bill for US President Trump’s crypto investments. In the broader political environment, ethics provisions often become a focal point for party discipline: opponents can use them to unify resistance even if they otherwise accept parts of the market structure framework.

As of Wednesday, the Senate Majority Leader John Thune had not scheduled a vote on the legislation before the chamber breaks, leaving uncertainty around whether negotiations can resolve both the ethics dispute and the BRCA/developer language before Senate procedures become harder to complete.

Timing pressure before the summer recess

The Senate is set to hold state work periods from Aug. 7 to Sept. 14, creating a compressed window for any vote or late-stage compromise. Thune told reporters last week that the Senate was unlikely to vote on the bill before the August recess.

One procedural complication highlighted in the source material is the difficulty of moving a contested bill through a full sequence of steps. Anne Kelley, a partner at Mercury Strategies, wrote on X that even if CLARITY were introduced “today,” the procedural steps—cloture, amendment processing, a second cloture, and as much as 30 hours of debate—would make finishing before recess extremely difficult without unanimous consent to waive process, which she described as rare for contested bills.

For readers watching legislative momentum, this is a key point: when the political environment is split, the Senate’s floor mechanics become a practical gatekeeper. Even if there is willingness to compromise, the calendar can determine whether changes occur in time to shape the final text.

What CLARITY aims to change: SEC versus CFTC authority

Beyond the fight over ethics and developer language, CLARITY’s central market-structure proposal would shift regulatory focus over digital assets largely from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The source material also notes that the CFTC currently has fewer tools and resources than the SEC for enforcement and oversight in certain contexts.

At the staffing and leadership level, both agencies have been described as understaffed at the leadership level, with the CFTC having one chair and the SEC having three commissioners—an imbalance that can affect how quickly agencies can operationalize new authorities, issue guidance, or prioritize enforcement.

For market participants, the SEC-to-CFTC shift matters because it can change how enforcement risk is assessed and how compliance is designed. Different agencies can interpret market conduct, custody, derivatives-related activity, and token classifications through different legal frameworks and enforcement priorities.

That institutional reshuffling is also why the BRCA debate may be consequential. If developer protections are intended to prevent criminal-liability expansion, the bill’s final language will determine how broadly those boundaries apply—and which regulator’s view ends up carrying more practical weight for day-to-day decision-making by builders.

As the Senate approaches its August recess, the immediate question is whether lawmakers can reconcile both the BRCA/developer provisions and the ethics-related objections without derailing the bill procedurally. The next signals to watch are whether the White House engages directly on the BRCA language and whether a vote is even realistically possible before the chamber pauses for the state work period.

BIP-360, the proposal to give bitcoin quantum-resistant addresses, specifies three algorithms NIST has already standardized, and includes several deliberately so users have fallbacks if one is later broken by quantum or classical advances.

What changed is the speed of the classical side. BIP-361, the companion proposal that would freeze more than a third of bitcoin’s supply, argues that the migration window is closing because cryptographic attacks are improving by up to 20-fold. Anthropic’s results align with that trend, with a model behind it.

Against HAWK’s smallest parameter set, Anthropic said the expected cost of recovering a key fell from about 2^64 operations to 2^38. Larger keys remain impractical to attack, but doubling key sizes to compensate removes most of what made HAWK attractive.

The company disclosed the attack to HAWK’s authors in June and coordinated publication with NIST’s public mailing list.

A second result improved attacks on a deliberately weakened version of AES, the cipher used across the industry to encrypt wallet files, by factors of 200 to 800.

Importantly for crypto developers, Anthropic said the model produced smaller improvements, under tenfold, against Poseidon, the hash function that underpins many zero-knowledge proof systems, including those securing rollups and privacy protocols.

The US Treasury has sanctioned two Iranian maritime firms involved in an alleged Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-backed insurance network, saying one accepted Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets to bypass Western sanctions. 

On Wednesday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said that Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority were integral to what it described as an IRGC-backed insurance network that required commercial vessels to buy approved coverage before transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The firms were designated for operating in Iran’s financial sector.

The action comes after earlier reports that Iran was considering a Bitcoin-based maritime insurance platform. US authorities now allege the network generated revenue for the IRGC. Treasury also sanctioned eight companies linked to Iran’s shadow fleet and identified eight vessels as blocked property.

OFAC said HormuzSafe accepted BTC and other crypto as part of efforts to evade sanctions. It alleged that the platform generated revenue on behalf of the IRGC while helping Iran exert greater control over shipping through the strait. 

“The United States will not allow Iran to hold global commerce hostage,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, accusing the regime of using international shipping to finance the IRGC. 

HormuzSafe shifts from reported proposal to sanctions target 

On May 18, screenshots of the HormuzSafe website had circulated online offering “digital insurance” for maritime cargo, with policies payable in Bitcoin. At the time, reports suggested Iran was still considering the insurance-based model, and the website was inaccessible when checked. 

Iranian state-linked media Fars News Agency said the proposed platform could issue marine insurance policies and certificates of financial responsibility while potentially generating over $10 billion in revenue. 

The Strait of Hormuz handles about one-fifth of the global oil trade, meaning efforts to monetize or control traffic through the waterway carry significant implications for international energy markets.

Related: Bitcoin threatens $62K in risk-asset rout as President Trump says US will ‘run’ closed Hormuz Strait

Earlier reports, citing the Bitcoin Policy Institute, said Iran accepted oil toll payments in Chinese yuan, Tether USDt (USDT) and Bitcoin, though there was no onchain evidence that any Bitcoin payments had yet been made.

Bitcoin may be attractive to sanctioned actors because it has no centralized issuer capable of freezing funds, unlike centralized stablecoins whose issuers can block addresses. In April, US authorities froze $344 million in USDT stablecoin linked to Iran. 

Magazine: Inside the ‘fake police raid’ that forced a $1M Bitcoin transfer

Crypto’s largest tokens were close to unchanged on Thursday as the semiconductor selloff that has driven markets for two weeks showed its first real sign of easing.

Ether traded at about $1,905 and bitcoin at $64,100, both flat on the day, with XRP at $1.07, solana at $74, BNB at $572 and TRON at 33 cents. Hyperliquid’s HYPE slipped to $54. Volumes were modest, with roughly $28 billion changing hands in bitcoin and $10 billion in ether.

Electronics giant Samsung said chip profit rose more than 250-fold on AI memory shortages, and the Kospi swung between a 6% gain and a 2% loss before settling, after a stretch that took the index down more than 40% from its June peak.

Samsung’s reaction is the tell on how high the bar has become. Profit up 250-fold moved the shares 2%. SK Hynix reported profit up 557% on Wednesday and fell 17%. Results are not the problem, expectations are.

U.S. earnings split overnight. Microsoft gained nearly 9% in extended trading on its fastest cloud growth in four years, while Meta fell 8% on a weak revenue forecast. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1% after the index entered a technical correction on Wednesday.

Ten European financial institutions have launched Regulated Layer One (RL1), a jointly owned blockchain cooperative designed for regulated financial markets and tokenized assets. 

On Tuesday, the group announced that RL1 had been established as a European Cooperative Society in Luxembourg and had begun operations with founding members including ABN AMRO, Cecabank, Chartered Investment, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, DekaBank, DZ BANK, LBBW, Natixis CIB, SC Ventures and Seturion. 

RL1 said each member will have equal decision-making rights over the network’s governance and development.

The private, permissioned network is based on infrastructure developed by German fintech Secure Worldwide Interbank Asset Transfer (SWIAT), which has now transferred ownership of the network to the cooperative. 

SWIAT said the platform has processed more than 50 transactions worth over 700 million euros (about $808 million) during three years of production use.

The blockchain is designed to support institutional use cases including digital money, tokenized bonds, collateral and blockchain-based settlement. RL1 said the shared network could reduce fragmentation caused by financial institutions operating separate distributed ledger systems. 

Former SWIAT managing director Henning Vollbehr will lead RL1. KfW and L-Bank will continue supporting the initiative, while RL1 said it is in discussions with additional institutions, including NatWest, about joining the network. 

Related: CoinShares debuts Bitcoin mining ETF in Europe entrance

This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.

Crypto exchange Luno is reportedly cutting about 20% of its workforce as it restructures operations and reallocates resources toward institutional clients, financial infrastructure, and business-to-business services. The move, first reported by Bloomberg, reflects a broader cost-and-efficiency push in the crypto industry amid pressured growth expectations and tighter budgets.

According to the report, Luno CEO James Lanigan said the company’s previous investments in automation and operational upgrades have changed what it needs to run the business. Alongside further cost trimming aligned with market conditions, Luno plans to continue investing in areas including compliance, core infrastructure, and retail products—suggesting the reorganization is intended to reduce burn without abandoning key regulatory and product priorities.

Key takeaways

• Luno is reportedly cutting roughly 20% of global staff as it shifts resources toward institutional and infrastructure-focused lines of business.
• Company leadership attributes the reduction to automation and operational improvements that have reduced the resources needed to run day-to-day activities.
• In addition to cost cuts, Luno plans to keep investing in compliance, core infrastructure, and retail offerings.
• Luno’s layoffs fit a wider industry pattern: job cuts across crypto companies have increasingly been linked to efficiency drives and automated operations.
• CryptoJobsList data shows July restructuring activity across multiple firms, though the dataset includes crypto-adjacent tech and is skewed by some very large reductions.

Luno’s restructuring: fewer people, different priorities

Luno, founded in South Africa and owned by Digital Currency Group, serves about 16 million users across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. While the exchange has historically been associated with retail trading, the firm has broadened its business into crypto infrastructure and institutional services—areas that can demand different operating capabilities than consumer exchange support.

Bloomberg reports that the latest job cuts are part of that operational pivot. Lanigan reportedly said the company invested in automation and broader changes to how work is performed, which altered staffing needs. The company will also trim costs while investing in compliance and core infrastructure, according to the same account.

For investors and market observers, the key point is that the cuts are not presented as a retreat from regulation-heavy infrastructure or core product development. Instead, Luno appears to be aiming for a more scalable operational model—one that can support institutional and business-to-business customers without matching headcount growth to revenue expectations.

Not Luno’s first workforce reduction

Luno’s reported 20% cut follows earlier staffing actions. In January 2023, the exchange cut 35% of its staff, affecting nearly 330 employees, as turbulence across the technology and crypto sectors weighed on its growth and revenue. That earlier round was covered by Cointelegraph, highlighting that Luno has already been navigating a challenging environment for crypto companies seeking consistent expansion.

Taken together, the two waves suggest Luno is actively recalibrating its cost structure rather than treating layoffs as a one-off response. This matters because repeated restructuring can change how quickly an exchange adapts to market shifts—particularly when compliance requirements and infrastructure demands continue to rise even when retail activity becomes more cyclical.

Crypto layoffs in July: a pattern of efficiency-driven cuts

Luno’s move aligns with broader industry downsizing and reorganization efforts. CryptoJobsList, a tracker of crypto and related job changes, recorded layoffs or restructurings at 12 crypto and crypto-adjacent companies during July. Disclosed figures in that period total 894 jobs affected.

The data is useful as a high-level indicator, but CryptoJobsList also notes that it includes financial-technology adjacent companies and that the figures can be skewed by large reductions. For example, Block’s 4,000-person reduction in February—also tracked in CryptoJobsList’s reporting—means some months can look unusually severe even when the rest of the sector is less affected. Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph has also described how AI, automation, and operational efficiency have become recurring explanations behind staff reductions across crypto.

Earlier in July, crypto wallet company Exodus announced plans to cut 25% of its staff while reorganizing around a full-stack card-issuance and stablecoin-payments platform. Exodus said the plan could generate between $10 million and $13 million in annual operating savings, according to Cointelegraph reporting.

Separately, blockchain infrastructure developer Gnosis reportedly took steps linked to its consumer-facing Gnosis App. On Tuesday, it invited companies to contact it for introductions to former employees affected by a recent restructuring. The company said on July 17 that it had reduced its workforce after reviewing the Gnosis App, as referenced by a report on the Gnosis forum.

Why this matters: the industry is shifting labor toward infrastructure

Luno’s layoffs are framed not just as belt-tightening, but as a response to changed operational requirements. In practice, that often means fewer roles tied to manual processes and more emphasis on areas like compliance and core infrastructure—especially where institutional clients and regulated financial partners are involved.

At the same time, the pattern visible across July reporting suggests companies across crypto are treating headcount as a variable they can re-engineer through automation, AI-enabled workflows, and redesigned products. The uncertain part for employees and the market is how these efficiency moves translate into sustainable growth: cost reductions can stabilize budgets, but they may also reflect caution about near-term demand.

Looking ahead, readers should watch whether Luno’s institutional and infrastructure focus delivers measurable traction in new partnerships and service expansion, and whether the broader wave of restructurings continues to concentrate around automation-led operating models rather than a broader collapse in activity.