A lot has happened since Monday, when the Clarity Act appeared nowhere near ready for the Senate floor.

The White House agreed to an ethics package, and Senate Republicans released the long-awaited, 616-page updated bill text. Crypto stakeholders largely welcomed it. Senate Democrats did not.

Seven key Democrats whose support could determine whether the bill clears the 60-vote procedural threshold, including Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), say they cannot support it in its current form, arguing it falls short in several areas, including ethics and illicit finance. Bipartisan negotiations are set to continue through the weekend as Republicans hope to begin the floor process next week amid a serious time crunch, with just nine legislative days remaining before the August recess.

The industry push: The Digital Chamber, Crypto Council for Innovation and Blockchain Association are ramping up pressure on Senate leadership.

In a new joint letter to Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), first reported by Crypto In America, the groups’ CEOs praise the updated text for strengthening law enforcement’s ability to combat illicit finance and establishing the first comprehensive federal consumer protection framework for crypto markets.

“These improvements reflect engagement with policymakers across both parties and demonstrate that a well-crafted market structure framework can promote innovation while also bolstering national security,” they wrote.

While the bill currently lacks the votes to advance, the groups argue Senate leaders should begin the floor process as soon as possible, even as bipartisan negotiations continue.

“For the United States to maintain its position as the global leader of financial innovation, there is no substitute for the long-term certainty of durable market structure legislation,” the letter says.

Who’s in, who’s out: Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon broke with some of his fellow bank CEOs and major banking groups, saying he supports the Clarity Act and wants to see it move forward.

The banking lobby remains one of the loudest critics of the latest text. The American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute and Independent Community Bankers of America say it still does not go far enough to prevent stablecoin rewards from draining bank deposits and reducing local lending. The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce echoed those concerns in a letter this week. Some banking advocates are also flagging changes they say would weaken the application of Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering requirements to certain DeFi platforms.

The DeFi Education Fund, which advocates for DeFi developers and users, praised the updated text for preserving the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act and adding new tools for law enforcement to combat crypto crime.

Matthew Hogan, a Connecticut State Police detective who leads the agency’s crypto working group, praised the bill’s new grants, financial sector liaisons and tools for freezing stolen funds. But he said it falls short on returning assets to victims and streamlining how crypto scams are reported.

“Overall, this is an improvement from the previous versions,” Hogan told Crypto In America.

What’s next: Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) is leading bipartisan talks over ethics after Democrats rejected a White House-backed package that would give enforcement authority to the Justice Department instead of state attorneys general. Tillis called the proposal “a step in the right direction” but has signaled his support hinges on stronger guardrails to prevent government officials from profiting from crypto.

It’s unclear whether Senate leadership can secure the votes needed to begin the floor process next week. Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral, which many Senate Republicans are expected to attend, could disrupt the schedule early in the week and leave the timing of any cloture vote uncertain.

Digital Chamber Sues to Block Illinois Crypto Tax

The Digital Chamber has become the first trade association to sue over Illinois’ new digital asset tax, filing a lawsuit seeking to block the nation’s first state tax targeting crypto business activity before it takes effect next year.

The complaint argues the law, which slaps a 0.2% tax on certain digital asset business activity, unconstitutionally singles out blockchain-based transactions for different treatment from comparable transactions conducted through traditional financial rails. The group alleges the tax violates the Illinois Constitution’s uniformity and due process protections, the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause and a federal prohibition on discriminatory taxes targeting electronic commerce.

At issue: The tax applies whenever a digital asset is exchanged, transferred or stored, even if no profit is made or the asset never changes hands. It covers Illinois businesses as well as out-of-state firms that generate more than $100,000 from customers in the state.

Critics say the levy, which is expected to generate roughly $60 million in annual revenue, is punitive enough to drive crypto businesses out of Illinois.

“Taxes should be carefully considered, not only for the revenue they produce but for the fairness of those being taxed,” said Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone. “That was not the case here, as the provision slipped into legislation the night before the bill’s final consideration.”

The lawsuit asks the court to strike down the tax and block Illinois from enforcing it.

From CFTC Commissioner to Blockchain Association: Summer Mersinger's Year Inside the Room Where It Happens

This week on the podcast, Jacquelyn sat down with Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger at the Injective Summit to reflect on her first year leading the trade group after leaving the CFTC and the view of Washington from the other side of the table.

Mersinger discusses the fight over the Clarity Act, her frustration with the banking industry’s pushback on stablecoin rewards and why she believes developer protections are essential. She also weighs what happens if the bill fails and what’s next for the Blockchain Association in her second year.

Catch the full episode on all platforms here.

Weekly Recap

ICYMI: Here are some of the biggest stories making headlines this week.

• Crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX will shut down in September after nearly 12 years in operation, following a strategic review by its parent company.

• Strategy launched the Bitcoin Security Consortium alongside partners including BlackRock, Coinbase and Fidelity, with the group committing $15 million over three years to address long-term threats to the network, including risks posed by quantum computing.

• SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce warned that crypto vaults and lending strategies may still be subject to federal securities laws depending on how they are structured.

• The SEC will pay $150,000 to settle a Coinbase-backed FOIA lawsuit over its loss of former Chair Gary Gensler’s text messages.

• The House passed a bill that would restrict members of Congress and their immediate families from trading individual stocks while in office.

• Strike CEO Jack Mallers resigned as CEO of Twenty One Capital as plans for a three-way merger involving Twenty One, Strike and Elektron Energy were abandoned.

• White House Crypto Council Executive Director Patrick Witt announced his National Guard training has been deferred, allowing him to remain in his role and oversee the Clarity Act’s path through the Senate.

• S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital launched a new digital asset index focused on tokens and companies with real-world utility and actual revenue, rather than price momentum or popularity.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Thursday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

Subscribe now

⚽️ First things first: Congratulations to Spain on winning the World Cup! It made the sting of England’s last-minute semifinal loss to Argentina a little less painful. A great summer of “football” all around, nonetheless.

What you’ll read: It’s coming down to the wire for the Clarity Act as the White House has yet to sign off on ethics provisions and industry stakeholders await updated legislative text. Plus, what’s on tap this week and the top stories you need to start the day.

The third week of July is upon us and there are still no signs that the Clarity Act is ready to come to the Senate floor.

Much to the chagrin of the crypto industry, no date has been set for a vote, updated legislative text has yet to be released, and negotiations over the bill’s most contentious issues remain ongoing, with only 14 working days left before senators depart Washington for the August recess.

Ethics continues to be the elephant in the room, and finding a viable solution that Democrats, as well as some Republicans, can support will likely determine whether the Clarity Act sees floor time this month.

But Democrats say they have been left largely in the dark about ethics discussions in recent weeks, including a White House meeting last Thursday afternoon aimed at securing the president’s support for provisions designed to prevent government officials from profiting from digital assets.

President Trump met privately in the Oval Office with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, White House Counsel David Warrington, Crypto Council Executive Director Patrick Witt, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Bernie Moreno (R-OH).

While it remains unclear what was discussed or what, if anything, the president agreed to, sources familiar with the negotiations tell Crypto In America that, as of this morning, the White House still had not made clear what ethics parameters it would support, potentially further delaying Republicans’ release of an updated version of the bill.

Without new text, the industry, too, has been left guessing about changes made over the past two months to key provisions, including the fate of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), as well as language in the Senate Agriculture Committee’s portion of the bill addressing conflicts of interest arising from crypto exchanges’ vertical integration, affiliate trading and the preemption of state law.

“I think the BRCA will remain intact, and I think the Banking piece is probably not going to change when the bill comes out,” Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger told Crypto In America. “They’re still negotiating text in the Agriculture Committee. They made it sound like they were down to technical edits at this point.”

One potential complication for the BRCA is public opposition from the National Sheriffs’ Association, which released a video last week calling cryptocurrency “the cartel currency of choice” and arguing that the Clarity Act would facilitate criminal activity and make law enforcement’s job much harder, a narrative that proponents of the bill, including the White House and Acting Attorney General Blanche, have spent months trying to counter.

It’s unclear what this will mean for efforts to secure the votes of Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Mark Warner (D-VA), who have signaled that their support could hinge on whether concerns raised by law enforcement and the Department of Justice about illicit finance are addressed in the final bill.

“I want America to lead in digital assets, but if we get it wrong, the downside ramifications could be huge as well,” Warner said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week.

Industry leaders are still holding out hope for a vote on the Clarity Act as early as this week, though the volume of unresolved issues makes that highly unlikely. The prevailing view on Capitol Hill is that negotiators have until the end of this week to tee up a cloture vote on the motion to proceed, which would require 60 votes to advance the bill to the Senate floor.

If the Clarity Act does not reach the floor next week, the window for passage before the August recess will effectively close.

👀 What To Watch This Week

Monday

The House and Senate return.

Tuesday

10:00 a.m.: Day One of the Out East Summit kicks off on Long Island’s North Fork. The invitation-only conference brings together leaders in institutional digital assets. Crypto In America will be on the ground.

The House Financial Services Committee hosts an oversight hearing of FinCEN.

Wednesday

CME Group (CME) and Nasdaq (NDAQ) report earnings before the market opens.

12:30 p.m.: The Center for American Progress will host Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) for a panel titled “Stopping Trump’s Crypto Corruption,” focused on “the risks of the Clarity Act to democracy and national security.”

Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOGL) report earnings post-market.

Thursday

10:00 a.m.: The Senate Banking Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for three Trump administration nominees, including Brian Johnson, the president’s pick to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Friday

Deadline to submit comments on the OCC’s proposed GENIUS Act rules, which would apply anti-money-laundering and sanctions compliance standards to supervised stablecoin issuers.

Robinhood Has 27 Million Accounts. Now It Wants to Bring Them Onchain | Johann Kerbrat

ICYMI: Last week on the podcast, we sat down with Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto and International, to discuss the company’s push to bring its 27 million accounts onchain.

We dug into the early activity on Robinhood Chain, with memecoins leading the way, the firm’s expansion into tokenization and DeFi, and what could happen if Congress fails to pass the Clarity Act.

Catch the full episode on all platforms here.

Crypto compliance isn’t slowing teams down anymore. It’s becoming a growth lever.

Sumsub is the identity verification and compliance platform trusted by 4,000+ companies, including 8 of the 10 largest crypto exchanges.

Their free State of the Crypto Industry 2026 report covers how the industry has shifted into a regulated maturity era: smarter fraud, higher expectations, and a new playbook for teams that want to scale. Inside: how to balance friction and conversion, where Travel Rule gaps remain, and why verification is now a competitive edge, not a checkbox.

Data from 4M+ fraud attempts and 300+ crypto companies surveyed. See how your peers are adapting here.

Weekend News Flash

ICYMI: The biggest headlines from Friday and the weekend.

• U.S. regulators, including the Treasury Department, OCC, FDIC and Federal Reserve, missed the GENIUS Act’s one-year deadline on Saturday to finalize rules for stablecoin issuers.

• Rapper Drake lost a $1.5 million USDT bet after backing Argentina to beat Spain in regulation in the World Cup final. The wager would have paid out more than $5 million.

• The Senate unanimously passed a resolution stating that convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should not receive a presidential pardon.

• JPMorgan tokenized shares of the Invesco QQQ Trust, creating a blockchain-based representation of the ETF.

• Stripe and Advent International have offered more than $53 billion to acquire PayPal, but the company’s board considers the bid inadequate, according to Reuters.

• Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE completed its rollout of spot trading for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana through its partnership with Zerohash.

• Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities invested $400 million in Crypto.com at a $20 billion valuation, marking the exchange’s first institutional funding round.

• The SEC proposed making electronic delivery the default method for issuers, broker-dealers, investment advisers and other market intermediaries to provide required regulatory information.

• T. Rowe Price launched its Active Crypto ETF ($TKNZ), offering actively managed exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Hyperliquid.

• Visa launched a stablecoin platform that allows banks, fintechs and crypto firms to mint, move and manage digital dollars across its network of more than 200 million merchants.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Thursday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

Subscribe now

Patrick Witt, the White House's top crypto adviser, will begin a months-long leave of absence later this month to comply with orders requiring him to report for training with the Georgia Army National Guard, Crypto In America has learned.

Witt, 37, who worked at the Defense Department for two years before taking on his current role last August, is expected to wrap up his work at the White House next Friday before reporting for mandatory training in the Guard's Judge Advocate General, or JAG, program on July 27. Upon completion, he will qualify to serve as a JAG officer, a military attorney who provides legal counsel on matters ranging from military justice to operational and administrative law.

Witt and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move comes at a critical moment for the Clarity Act, the crypto industry's landmark market structure legislation that would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets, as Senate Republicans race to bring it to the floor before Congress leaves for its August recess, a deadline many crypto policy observers view as the last realistic opportunity to pass the bill this Congress.

Sources familiar with the matter say that while the timing of Witt's leave is not ideal, it was unavoidable. The Georgia native applied to the JAG program last spring as part of a longstanding ambition to serve before taking over as executive director following Bo Hines' departure to stablecoin giant Tether. After receiving orders to report for training, Witt postponed the start of the program, originally scheduled for April, so he could remain at the White House as Clarity Act negotiations stretched on longer than expected. A second postponement was not an option.

Even so, the White House will be without its chief negotiator as the legislation enters a pivotal phase.

As executive director, Witt served as the administration’s top liaison on the bill, leading months of talks with lawmakers and industry stakeholders over some of its most contentious issues. Those efforts included helping broker a compromise between the crypto industry and banks over stablecoin yield, navigating partisan disputes over ethics provisions, and securing the support of law enforcement groups concerned the bill could make it harder to investigate and prosecute illicit activity.

His looming departure raises the stakes for the next two weeks as lawmakers and the White House work to resolve the Clarity Act's remaining sticking points, particularly negotiations over ethics provisions aimed at addressing President Trump's crypto business interests after financial disclosures showed he earned more than $1 billion from crypto-related ventures last year.

In Witt's absence, the crypto council's deputy director, Harry Jung, is expected to assume his responsibilities, though Witt intends to remain as involved as possible during his military training, according to sources familiar with the plans. The transition is expected to provide a measure of continuity because Jung has worked alongside Witt over the past year and been in the room for many of the same negotiations. Still, it comes at a particularly delicate moment for legislation that still faces significant political hurdles.

It remains unclear whether Witt intends to return to the role full time after completing his training.

Beyond his work on the Clarity Act, Witt has also led the administration's efforts to implement the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and has been a leading voice on a range of other crypto policy priorities, including implementation of the GENIUS Act and efforts to modernize the tax treatment of digital assets.

What you'll read: Congress is back in session, Clarity text is expected, Custodia petitions the Supreme Court, and what we’re watching this week.

Cue The Final Countdown. The Senate is back in session, and the clock is officially ticking.

Lawmakers now have roughly four weeks to schedule, debate, vote on, and potentially pass the Clarity Act before leaving Washington for the August recess, a deadline many plugged-in crypto policy watchers see as the last realistic opportunity to get comprehensive crypto market structure legislation across the finish line this year.

But if getting to this point has been difficult, getting the 60 votes needed to advance the bill could prove even tougher. Negotiations over several major issues are still active, and with the Republican conference shrinking, Democratic support has become more important than ever.

The next big milestone could come this week. Industry stakeholders are awaiting updated legislative text merging the Senate Banking and Senate Agriculture Committee versions of the bill, hoping it will provide the clearest picture yet of where negotiations stand, what made the cut, and which issues still need to be resolved before the bill is ready for the Senate floor.

What we know

Meetings took place throughout the July 4 recess, but concrete resolutions on some of the thorniest issues remain elusive.

One of the biggest question marks is the final status of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, which would clarify that non-custodial software developers should not be treated as money transmitters for publishing code. It's still unclear whether the provision will remain in the form advanced by the Senate Banking Committee in May or whether it will be revised in an effort to address concerns from law enforcement groups and, by extension, the Democratic senators whose support could hinge on those changes.

The other major, and arguably most important, sticking point is ethics. Sources tell Crypto In America that a deal establishing guardrails around conflicts of interest for government officials, particularly as they relate to President Trump’s crypto business interests, has still not been reached with the White House. Many observers believe the bill's path to 60 votes hinges on an ethics agreement, with Democrats and some Republicans, including Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), seeking to rein in Trump's crypto profits after his financial disclosure showed he earned more than $1 billion from crypto-related ventures last year.

Complicating matters further, the death of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over the weekend, coupled with the continued absence of Mitch McConnell (R-KY), leaves Republicans with little room for error, increasing the importance of both keeping Republicans on board and winning Democratic votes if the bill is to reach the 60-vote threshold.

A tale of two outlooks

Ask industry stakeholders how they’re feeling heading into this critical stretch and you’ll get two very different answers. Some believe the remaining issues are difficult but solvable, and that the bill is still on track for a floor vote before the August recess.

“Nothing in Congress is ever certain, but I’m confident we have a real path to getting the Clarity Act signed into law,” Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith told Crypto In America. “With members returning to the Capitol this week and updated bill text taking shape, momentum is certainly building toward a floor vote. There’s progress happening on the remaining critical items, and I like where things stand heading into this critical window.”

Others are less convinced, warning that every additional round of negotiations eats into an already narrow legislative window.

“The next four weeks are likely Clarity’s last chance to pass in the 119th Congress,” said Galaxy Digital Head of Research Alex Thorn. “If we don’t pass Clarity into law, innovation will continue abroad and America will be left behind.”

Thorn has become increasingly cautious about the bill's prospects. Last month, he cut his estimated odds of passage to 50%, citing the shrinking legislative calendar and a lack of meaningful progress on several of the bill's outstanding issues. He also pointed to competing Senate priorities, including the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the upper chamber is expected to begin considering this week, potentially consuming valuable floor time in the weeks ahead.

Custodia Bank Asks the Supreme Court to Take Up Its Fight With the Fed

Wyoming crypto bank Custodia is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its years-long battle with the Federal Reserve, setting up a potential showdown over who ultimately decides which banks gain direct access to the central bank’s payments system.

The bank has officially filed a certiorari petition asking the justices to decide whether regional Federal Reserve Banks have the discretion to deny otherwise eligible state-chartered banks access to master accounts. Custodia argues the case reaches far beyond its own application, raising broader questions about the balance of power between state and federal banking authority, the discretion of regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents, and whether innovative state-chartered banks can access the Fed's payment rails.

To make its case, Custodia has assembled a heavyweight legal team that includes white shoe law firm Davis Polk.

The filing is the latest escalation in Custodia CEO Caitlin Long's years-long fight with the Kansas City Federal Reserve, which denied the bank a master account in 2023. It comes after both a Wyoming federal district court and a divided Tenth Circuit panel sided with the Fed's interpretation of the Monetary Control Act, finding the central bank has broad discretion to deny master accounts.

Long did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the petition, reviewed by Crypto In America, the Kansas City Fed based its denial on concerns over Custodia's crypto-centric business model, a move many in the crypto industry have long pointed to as a defining example of "Operation Choke Point 2.0," a term critics use to describe what they believe was a coordinated effort by banking regulators to limit crypto companies' access to the financial system.

Whether the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case remains to be seen. The Court accepts only a small fraction of the thousands of petitions it receives each year. But if it does, the outcome could help define the limits of the Federal Reserve's discretion over master accounts and provide much-needed clarity for innovative state-chartered banks seeking access to the U.S. financial system.

👀 What To Watch This Week

Monday

The House and the Senate are back in session.

5:25 a.m.: The Fed’s Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaks at a roundtable hosted by Bank Policy Institute on modernizing financial regulation.

12:30 p.m.: Fed Governor Christopher Waller will give a speech on the economic outlook at the New York Association for Business Economics.

Tuesday

8:30 a.m.: The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the June Consumer Price Index (CPI).

10:00 a.m.: Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh will testify on the semi-annual monetary report before the House Financial Services Committee.

12:30 p.m.: The Fed will host its semi-annual “Next-Gen Financial Inclusion” Conference with speeches from Governors Barr and Cook on artificial intelligence and Vice Chair for Supervision Bowman on responsible innovation.

Wednesday

BlackRock (BLK) reports earnings before the opening bell.

8:30 a.m.: The BLS will release the June Producer Price Index (PPI).

10:00 a.m.: Warsh will testify before the Senate Banking Committee. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought will give the semi-annual report on the state of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the House Financial Services Committee.

1:00 p.m.: Fed Governor Lisa Cook will give a speech on the economic outlook.

2:00 p.m.: The Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book, a snapshot of economic conditions across the country based on anecdotal reports from businesses and regional Fed banks.

Thursday

8:30 a.m.: The Census Bureau will release June retail sales data, offering a closely watched snapshot of consumer spending and the overall strength of the U.S. consumer.

10:00 a.m.: Injective kicks off its Summit in Washington, D.C., bringing together policymakers, lawmakers, and industry CEOs. Crypto In America will be on the ground covering the event.

7:00 p.m.: Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson will deliver remarks in Stanford, California, on navigating economic shocks.

Friday

10:00 a.m.: The House Financial Services Committee will hold a field hearing in New York City on how the Clarity Act unlocks innovation.

10:00 a.m.: The University of Michigan releases its preliminary consumer sentiment for July.

Crypto compliance isn’t slowing teams down anymore. It’s becoming a growth lever.

Sumsub is the identity verification and compliance platform trusted by 4,000+ companies, including 8 of the 10 largest crypto exchanges.

Their free State of the Crypto Industry 2026 report covers how the industry has shifted into a regulated maturity era: smarter fraud, higher expectations, and a new playbook for teams that want to scale. Inside: how to balance friction and conversion, where Travel Rule gaps remain, and why verification is now a competitive edge, not a checkbox.

Data from 4M+ fraud attempts and 300+ crypto companies surveyed. See how your peers are adapting here.

Weekend News Flash

ICYMI: The biggest headlines from Friday and the weekend.

• A temporary ban on central bank digital currencies became law Friday at midnight when the Senate's Housing bill took effect after President Trump declined to sign the legislation in protest over the Senate's failure to pass the SAVE America Act.

• The Federal Open Market Committee's meeting minutes showed inflation remains elevated, citing higher memory chip prices, tensions in the Middle East, and the impact of tariffs.

• The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted Circle full approval to become a national trust bank after issuing conditional approval in December. Sony also received conditional approval to establish a U.S. trust bank, paving the way for its plans to issue a dollar-backed stablecoin.

• The Federal Reserve appointed Andreessen Horowitz partner Marc Andreessen as an adviser to a new task force examining AI’s impact on productivity, jobs, and monetary policy.

• Backpack launched 24/7 trading for tokenized U.S. equities on Solana, allowing international investors to trade tokenized shares of U.S. companies, including SpaceX, Micron, and SanDisk.

• In a note, JPMorgan said Bitcoin faces a greater risk from blockchain adoption being hindered by permissioned infrastructure than from potential sales by Strategy.

• Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, who led the company through its lawsuit with the Securities and Exchange Commission, will step down at the end of the month and move into an advisory role.

• The White House pushed back on claims that it is dragging its feet on nominating Democrats to the vacant minority seats at the SEC and CFTC, saying Senate leadership did not respond to its request for a list of recommended candidates to fill the positions.

• The CFTC stayed CME Group's self-certification for 24/7 crude oil futures pending further review, delaying the launch of the contract while the agency evaluates its compliance with federal law.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Thursday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

Subscribe now

What you'll read: Ethics and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act remain the biggest obstacles to getting the Clarity Act to the Senate floor, and signs of progress remain scarce; is a former CFTC commissioner getting a look for the SEC? Kraken reignites the Operation Chokepoint 2.0 conversation, and former SWIFT CIO Tom Zschach joins the podcast.

As the final week of the July 4 recess winds down, the crypto industry is watching for signs that negotiators made enough progress behind the scenes to clear the way for a Senate floor vote on the Clarity Act later this month.

Before the break, one of the bill's lead negotiators, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), said updated compromise text would be released during the recess to give industry stakeholders time to review it ahead of a potential floor vote. But with lawmakers set to return next week, no revised text has emerged.

What do we know? Publicly, not much. But sources close to the negotiations say discussions have continued in recent days between Trump administration officials and law enforcement groups over the fate of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. The provision has emerged as one of the most contentious pieces of the legislation and is widely viewed as key to securing bipartisan support on the Senate floor.

As Crypto In America reported last week, one group, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), officially endorsed the legislation, while another, the Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA), shifted its position from opposed to neutral.

But other influential organizations, including the National Sheriffs’ Association, National Association of Police Organizations, and the Fraternal Order of Police, have yet to signal their support. Whether they ultimately come on board, and whether doing so will require further revisions to the legislation, remains to be seen.

Why does law enforcement support matter? Some Democrats, including Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Mark Warner (D-VA), have indicated their support for the bill is contingent on adequately addressing law enforcement's fears that the BRCA could create gaps in their ability to investigate and prosecute illicit activity. At the same time, there are concerns that some Republican senators may also hesitate to back the legislation if major law enforcement organizations remain opposed.

At least one Democrat is publicly backing the provision. In a welcome development for the crypto industry on Wednesday, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to Senate leaders urging them to preserve the BRCA, as passed by the Senate Banking Committee, in any version of the Clarity Act brought to the floor.

Wyden, who co-introduced the standalone BRCA with Senator Lummis in January, argued the provision would codify existing federal policy by making clear that non-custodial software developers should not be treated as money transmitters solely for publishing software, while preserving the DOJ’s and FinCEN’s authority to pursue illicit actors.

Whether that support extends to the broader Clarity Act remains unclear. Wyden has opposed previous crypto legislation, voting against both the GENIUS Act and the congressional resolution overturning the IRS’s DeFi broker rule.

Ethics. Ethics. Ethics.

Now widely viewed as the biggest question mark hanging over the bill, any sign of an ethics agreement with the White House remains elusive.

Multiple industry participants told Crypto In America they believe an ethics agreement is the key to unlocking the rest of the negotiations, arguing that once ethics is resolved, other sticking points, including law enforcement support and differences over the Agriculture Committee's text, become much less likely to stand in the way of a final deal.

Many echoed the same sentiment: "If we can get ethics, the rest of the bill will come together."

But that’s a big if. Little is known about the parameters Democrats are now pursuing after a tentative agreement fell apart last month, when Senate Republicans and White House officials backed away from a proposal that would have allowed state attorneys general to sue the Department of Justice for failing to enforce laws preventing conflicts of interest.

Before the recess, Lummis floated an alternative proposal that would instead allow state attorneys general to sue exchanges for listing tokens issued by government officials. But it remains unclear what Democrats might be willing to accept now that the earlier compromise is off the table, particularly as pressure has mounted in recent weeks following the release of the president’s latest financial disclosure, which showed he reported more than $1 billion in income from various crypto-related businesses last year.

And it's not just Democrats. Some Republicans have also drawn a hard line on conflicts of interest. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), a key player in the negotiations who helped broker the stablecoin yield compromise between the crypto and banking industries, said in April he would vote against the legislation unless it includes ethics language.

Ultimately, the fate of the Clarity Act may come down to one person: President Trump and whether he is willing to accept ethics provisions that could constrain his own crypto-related business interests.

The answer to that question, and whether more than a year of negotiations culminates in a Senate floor vote this month, should become clearer in the coming days.

Is Christy Goldsmith Romero in the running for SEC commissioner? One market watchdog is trying to make sure she isn't.

Financial watchdog Better Markets CEO Dennis Kelleher launched an aggressive public campaign against former CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero on Tuesday, urging Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer not to recommend her for one of the SEC’s vacant Democratic commissioner seats.

The attack comes as calls from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to fill vacant minority seats at the agencies overseeing digital assets have grown louder ahead of a possible Senate floor vote on the Clarity Act later this month. The legislation would give both the SEC and CFTC expanded responsibility for overseeing the $2 trillion industry, fueling speculation that the White House is preparing to make long-awaited nominations.

That speculation intensified Thursday after the White House pushed back on Senate Democrats’ claims that the administration has refused to nominate Democratic commissioners to independent agencies. In a letter to Senate leaders, the White House said it requested recommendations from Senate Democrats for vacancies at both the SEC and CFTC but “has not received names in response.”

Goldsmith Romero, who was previously nominated to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the waning days of the Biden administration, had not publicly emerged as a contender for an SEC seat before Kelleher’s post, unlike a handful of other names that have circulated in recent months.

In a blog post, Kelleher called Goldsmith Romero “unqualified and untrustworthy,” accusing her of helping pave the way for the expansion of prediction markets by backing the CFTC’s decision to drop its lawsuit against Kalshi. He also argued that her potential nomination could give Democratic senators political cover to support the Clarity Act, which Kelleher described as a “bad crypto bill.”

The attack drew swift pushback from the crypto industry, with many pointing out that Better Markets and Kelleher himself had enthusiastically backed Goldsmith Romero just two years ago when she was under consideration to chair the FDIC. At the time, Better Markets described her as “uniquely highly qualified,” praising her experience across banking, securities, derivatives and law enforcement.

Kelleher rejected the comparison, arguing circumstances have changed since Better Markets endorsed her in 2024.

Whether Goldsmith Romero ultimately receives a nomination remains to be seen. She declined to comment when reached by Crypto In America.

Washington is setting the rules for digital assets.

Taking place in the heart of the nation’s capital, the Injective Summit brings together the policymakers shaping the future of digital assets and the builders putting finance onchain.

Featured speakers include:

• Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-WY), Gabe Evans (R-CO), William Timmons (R-SC)

• Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

• Harry Jung, Deputy Director, President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets

• Joseph Chalom, Co-CEO, Sharplink

Crypto In America will be on the ground bringing you the interviews and insights you won’t want to miss. Applications close this week.

Apply to attend here.

Kraken's $22M Arbitration Win Against Former Auditor Revives Operation Choke Point 2.0 Claims

Kraken's parent company, Payward Inc., has asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to enter final judgment against auditing firm Forvis Mazars after winning a $22 million arbitration award over the firm's withdrawal from the exchange's nearly completed 2022 audit.

According to the arbitration ruling, Mazars' exit triggered what the arbitrator described as a "licensing crisis" for Kraken, delaying its efforts to obtain state money transmitter licenses and ultimately contributing to its acquisition of TradeStation Crypto, a licensed crypto brokerage with money transmitter licenses in 47 states.

In a blog post accompanying the filing, Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi characterized the dispute as another chapter in what the crypto industry and Republican lawmakers have dubbed "Operation Choke Point 2.0," a term largely associated with claims that crypto firms were cut off from banking services under the Biden administration. Sethi argues the campaign extended beyond banks to auditors and other critical service providers.

Kraken CEO Dave Ripley echoed that sentiment in a post on X, writing that the case is "worth surfacing" because "only a fraction of the stories from that era have ever been told," suggesting the Mazars dispute was one example of a broader effort to cut the crypto industry off from essential financial services.

Mazars cited legal uncertainty following the Securities and Exchange Commission's 2023 lawsuit accusing Kraken of operating an unregistered securities exchange when it withdrew from the engagement weeks later. Sethi, however, argues the decision reflected a broader retreat from the crypto industry, noting the firm had already exited its proof-of-reserves business earlier that year.

“The firm was not walking away from bad clients,” Sethi wrote. “It was walking away from an industry that had become politically expensive to serve. We were the collateral damage.”

A spokesperson for Mazars did not respond to a request for comment.

The SEC's lawsuit against Kraken was dismissed with prejudice in March 2025 after new leadership took over the agency under President Trump's second term and began unwinding many of the crypto enforcement actions brought during the Biden administration. Sethi argues the case illustrates why the industry is pushing Congress to pass the Clarity Act to create durable rules for crypto, rather than relying on shifting regulatory priorities from one administration to the next.

“We won this fight. Now our congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle need to come together to finish the bigger one. Pass the Clarity Act,” Sethi said.

The Biggest Problem in Tokenization Isn't Technology. It's Trust.

Tokenization has become Wall Street’s favorite crypto buzzword, but why hasn’t it scaled?

This week, we sat down with former SWIFT Chief Innovation Officer Tom Zschach to discuss the biggest hurdle facing tokenized assets today, why trust matters more than technology, and what needs to happen before traditional finance embraces tokenization at scale.

We also dive into SWIFT’s role in global finance, why the long-running narrative that blockchain would replace SWIFT missed the mark, how AI is likely to reshape financial markets, and why the next chapter of finance will be built by modernizing existing infrastructure rather than replacing it.

Catch the full episode on all platforms here.

Midweek Recap

ICYMI: Here are some of the biggest stories making headlines this week.

• The SEC released its 2026 regulatory agenda, including a target timeline for “Regulation Crypto,” a potential rulemaking that could create fundraising registration exemptions for certain crypto products, establish a safe harbor for issuers, and allow limited fundraising under existing rules.

• Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who also presided over the SEC v. Ripple Labs case, ruled that New York's lawsuit against prediction market platform Kalshi can proceed after finding that the state's gambling laws, as applied to Kalshi's sports event contracts, are not preempted by the Commodity Exchange Act. Kalshi has appealed the decision to the Second Circuit.

• Ripple partnered with Kansas Athletics to bring the XRP logo to its jerseys, marking what the school says is the first time a major college athletics program has featured a cryptocurrency brand.

• Asset management giant Vanguard is hiring a Head of Digital Assets for its Personal Wealth business, marking its latest move into crypto after rolling out access to spot crypto ETFs for its brokerage clients earlier this year.

• Crypto VC firm Paradigm raised a $1.2 billion fund focused on AI and robotics.

• BonkDAO suffered a $20 million hack after attackers used a malicious governance proposal to drain its treasury.

• The White House says work on the long-awaited Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is ongoing.

This is our last Wednesday edition. Starting next week, the Crypto In America newsletter will drop every Monday and Thursday.

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Subscribe now

What you'll read: Clarity Act negotiations continue this week as ethics remains the biggest hurdle and Democratic calls to rein in President Trump's crypto business interests grow. Plus, what to watch this week and the top stories shaping crypto policy and markets.

The White House’s target of signing the Clarity Act into law by July 4 has come and gone, and if you’ve been following Crypto In America’s reporting, you’ll know why that timeline was always a long shot.

With all eyes now on August 6 as the next deadline, little has emerged publicly to suggest meaningful progress toward resolving the handful of outstanding issues needed to bring the bill to the Senate floor as lawmakers enter the second week of recess.

One notable exception has been the emergence of two letters from law enforcement organizations that have become key stakeholders in negotiations over the Clarity Act, both first reported by Crypto In America. The first, from the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), formally endorsed the legislation, while the second, from the Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA), shifted to a neutral position, citing continued discussions with administration officials last week.

NOBLE also became the first major law enforcement organization to publicly back the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a section of the legislation that has become the primary sticking point for other law enforcement groups involved in the negotiations. Those groups argue the provision could create oversight gaps that criminal actors could exploit. NOBLE, however, said the bill “does not alter the longstanding federal criminal authorities that investigators and prosecutors rely upon every day,” including statutes governing money laundering and unlicensed money transmitting businesses.

MCSA, meanwhile, said its discussions with administration officials presented an opportunity to “further strengthen the legislation in ways that support responsible innovation and the practical needs of state and local law enforcement.” That suggestion has raised concerns among some industry leaders that the BRCA section, which many view as essential to securing support from the crypto industry, could ultimately be watered down to win broader law enforcement support.

Elsewhere, no agreement has yet emerged on ethics provisions as political pressure continues to build following President Trump’s financial disclosures, which revealed he generated more than $1 billion in crypto-related income last year, including more than $600 million from his TRUMP memecoin.

That pressure was evident on Friday, when Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) renewed her call for ethics rules prohibiting the president, members of Congress, and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets. The proposal drew pushback from some industry leaders, including BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, who argued any ethics rules should apply equally across all asset classes because the problem is politicians' conduct, not crypto itself.

Gillibrand’s latest push also comes amid scrutiny following reports that her son, Theodore, has raised funding to launch a perpetual futures exchange. The platform is not expected to involve crypto or blockchain technology, according to those reports, although it counts Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen among its backers.

Senators Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), the two Democrats who voted to advance the Clarity Act out of the Senate Banking Committee in May and have said their continued support hinges on a strong ethics agreement being reached before a Senate floor vote, have also reacted sharply to President Trump’s financial disclosures.

“Trump is using the presidency to profit off the American people,” Gallego wrote in a post on X. “I’ll keep doing everything I can to crack down on his corrupt crypto dealings.” Alsobrooks told reporters that Trump and his family are “the most corrupt we’ve ever seen in the White House,” adding that an ethics provision is “desperately needed.”

Negotiations are expected to continue this week ahead of lawmakers returning from recess on July 13. If consensus is reached on the remaining issues, the Clarity Act could be brought to the Senate floor as soon as the week of July 20.

👀 What To Watch This Week

Monday

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.'s Bitcoin mining company, American Bitcoin (ABTC), will continue trading on the Nasdaq after a 1-for-15 reverse stock split reduced its outstanding shares from roughly 1.09 billion to about 73 million.

Tuesday

SpaceX (SPCX) is set to join the Nasdaq 100 Index.

Wednesday

2:00 p.m.: The Federal Open Market Committee will release the minutes from its June meeting, giving investors a closer look at policymakers' thinking on interest rates, inflation and the economy.

3:00 p.m.: The Federal Reserve publishes its consumer credit report, which measures how much Americans are borrowing outside of mortgages.

Crypto compliance isn’t slowing teams down anymore. It’s becoming a growth lever.

Sumsub is the identity verification and compliance platform trusted by 4,000+ companies, including 8 of the 10 largest crypto exchanges.

Their free State of the Crypto Industry 2026 report covers how the industry has shifted into a regulated maturity era: smarter fraud, higher expectations, and a new playbook for teams that want to scale. Inside: how to balance friction and conversion, where Travel Rule gaps remain, and why verification is now a competitive edge, not a checkbox.

Data from 4M+ fraud attempts and 300+ crypto companies surveyed. See how your peers are adapting here.

Weekend News Flash

ICYMI: The biggest headlines from Friday and the weekend.

• Michael Saylor’s Strategy sold 3,588 BTC for approximately $216 million to fund distributions on its preferred stock and replenish the U.S. dollar reserves used to make those payments. The move marks a dramatic step up from last month’s sale of just 32 bitcoin.

• Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion purchased 42,197 ETH, worth roughly $74 million, lifting its ETH holdings to about $10 billion.

• Tokenization platform Securitize debuted on the NYSE under the ticker SECZ while simultaneously tokenizing $295 million worth of its own shares.

• Stablecoin transaction volume hit a record $1.79 trillion in June, up 63% from May, according to Visa.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

Subscribe now

What you'll read: Wall Street is looking beyond the crypto bear market, betting on the industry's long-term future. Plus, President Trump's latest financial disclosure is drawing fresh criticism from Senate Democrats as negotiations over ethics provisions in the Clarity Act continue. TRON DAO's Adrian Wall joins the podcast, and we round up the week's top stories.

Bitcoin just wrapped up a bruising start to the year, posting losses in both the first and second quarters for just the third time in its history.

Analysts have attributed the latest market slump to a confluence of factors, including nearly $5 billion in spot ETF outflows, a strengthening dollar, expectations that the Federal Reserve could resume raising interest rates, capital rotating into AI-related equities and uncertainty over whether Congress will pass crypto market structure legislation this year.

Still, many institutional investors view the downturn as little more than a bump in the road, using the slowdown to build for what they see as the next phase of market growth.

At a conference hosted by crypto infrastructure firm ZeroHash at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, institutional conviction in crypto was on full display. Executives from Morgan Stanley, Citi, BlackRock, DTCC and others gathered at one of traditional finance's most iconic venues to tout how they're bringing financial services onchain through tokenization and stablecoins.

“The value proposition is very, very obvious to people — atomic settlement, composability and borderless, frictionless payments,” said William Su, Head of Digital Assets Research at BlackRock, which has become one of Wall Street's leading proponents of tokenization. “I think you just have this big primordial goop that leads to that Cambrian explosion for tokenization to really take off and grow in the coming years.”

BlackRock was among more than 140 organizations named as partners by Open Standard, a newly formed independent company preparing to launch a stablecoin designed to compete with market leaders Circle and Tether.

ZeroHash CEO and founder Edward Woodford, whose firm counts Wall Street giants like BlackRock and Morgan Stanley among its partners, said one of the biggest shifts he's seen during this market downturn is institutions increasingly viewing crypto as a technology, rather than simply an asset class.

“It’s a broader understanding that this is a technology that can disrupt the way that value is moved, whether that be the way that dollars are moved or any other fiat currency, or fundamentally the way that securities and everything else is moved onchain globally," he said.

As traders look ahead to the second half of the year, they’ll be watching for the catalysts that have historically marked the end of previous crypto winters, including looser monetary policy, regulatory clarity and growing institutional adoption.

On that last point, some market watchers believe Wall Street’s continued engagement with the space could eventually translate into renewed demand.

“Every crypto conversation we’re having with traditional investors is focused on the long term and on several different topics — stablecoins, tokenization, prediction markets, regulation... the list goes on and on,” Ryan Rasmussen, Head of Research at Bitwise, told Crypto In America. “That’s distinctly different than at this same point in past cycles, when the only thing investors were focused on was negative price action.”

Rasmussen said he sees that as a positive sign for the months ahead.

“It tells me that Wall Street hasn’t left crypto by the wayside, and points to a second half of the year in which investor attention and appetite for crypto reaccelerates.”

Clarity Act Negotiations Continue

Major financial firms like Fidelity and industry leaders, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, believe passage of the Clarity Act could provide a meaningful catalyst for the crypto market.

The question now is whether lawmakers can get it across the finish line before time runs out.

Negotiations between industry stakeholders, lawmakers, congressional staff and administration officials are continuing this week as they work to prepare the bill for a Senate floor vote later this month. That included a meeting Monday between several law enforcement groups and administration officials as supporters continued their efforts to win over organizations that remain opposed to key provisions of the legislation.

According to sources briefed on the meeting, representatives from the Fraternal Order of Police, National Association of Police Organizations, National Sheriffs’ Association, Major Cities Chiefs Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police attended.

However, major sticking points, including the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, were not discussed, sources said. Instead, the meeting focused on educating attendees about other provisions of the bill that supporters say would strengthen law enforcement's ability to fight onchain crime. The discussion also covered other law enforcement priorities unrelated to the legislation.

That effort comes as two of the organizations represented at Monday's meeting — the National Sheriffs' Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police signed a letter to the administration last week following weeks of similar meetings, including at least one with Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche. The groups argued the BRCA could create oversight gaps that criminal actors could exploit to facilitate illicit activity, drawing pushback from the Department of Justice, which said the letter "contains factual inaccuracies and mischaracterizes Administration policy."

Discussions are expected to continue, with the hope, sources say, that some of these groups will move from opposing the Clarity Act to a position of neutrality, potentially easing concerns among Democratic lawmakers who have cited law enforcement's objections as a reason for withholding their support.

Meanwhile, President Trump's latest financial disclosure, which shows he made more than $1 billion from his family's various crypto ventures last year, is prompting fresh scrutiny from Senate Democrats as ethics remains one of the top issues to resolve before the bill reaches the Senate floor.

According to the disclosure, in addition to holding more than $50 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum, Trump reported more than $695 million in royalties related to his meme coin. His family's DeFi venture, World Liberty Financial, also generated more than $500 million from token sales and related transactions.

“The crypto legislation heading to the Senate floor must stop the President and his family from continuing to profit off crypto,” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote in an X post on Tuesday.

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), a member of the Senate Agriculture and Judiciary Committees who until recently was closely involved in negotiations over establishing ethics guardrails for the president in the Clarity Act, called it "the cost of corruption."

Washington is setting the rules for digital assets.

Taking place in the heart of the nation’s capital, the Injective Summit brings together the policymakers shaping the future of digital assets and the builders putting finance onchain.

Featured speakers include:

• Sunayna Tuteja, the Federal Reserve’s first Chief Innovation Officer

• Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and Gabe Evans (R-CO), U.S. House of Representatives

• Christopher Perkins, Franklin Templeton

Crypto In America will be on the ground bringing you the interviews and insights you won’t want to miss. The most anticipated onchain finance event of the year is less than a month away.

Apply to attend here.

The “Clean Slate” Proposal That Could Rewrite Crypto’s Past

This week on the podcast, we sat down with Adrian Wall, Senior Director of U.S. Policy at TRON DAO and Managing Director of the Digital Sovereignty Alliance, for a wide-ranging conversation on the Clarity Act and what’s happening behind the scenes as lawmakers race to finish the consequential piece of crypto market structure legislation.

Adrian breaks down why he’s still optimistic about the bill’s chances, explains the “Clean Slate” proposal he wants included in the final text, and delivers one of his sharpest critiques yet of the banking industry’s stablecoin lobbying effort, saying JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s public comments criticizing the bill were “a kick in the teeth” after months of private negotiations.

We also discuss the future of stablecoins, bringing crypto innovation back onshore, and why the most transformative blockchain applications likely haven't been invented yet.

Catch the full episode on all platforms here.

Midweek Recap

ICYMI: Here are some of the biggest stories making headlines this week.

• Bitcoin ended the second quarter down 14%, marking its second consecutive quarterly loss.

• Citi cut its 12-month Bitcoin price target to $82,000 from $112,000, citing negative crypto ETF flows and uncertainty surrounding the Clarity Act.

• JPMorgan emphasized the importance of adding strong safeguards to crypto market structure legislation in a company blog post.

• U.S. consumer sentiment rose in June, helped by moderating oil prices.

• Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain, enabling tokenized stock trading in more than 120 countries.

• Ethereum Institutional, a new nonprofit backed by BitMine, SharpLink and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, has launched to accelerate institutional adoption of Ethereum.

• President Trump’s financial disclosure shows he holds more than $50 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum and reported over $635 million in royalties tied to the TRUMP meme coin. World Liberty Financial generated more than $500 million from token sales and related transactions.

• Open Standard announced Open USD (OUSD), a stablecoin launching with support from more than 140 partners, including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, Google and Coinbase, aiming to compete with Circle and Tether.

• Ripple proposed the XRPL Lending Protocol, which would let institutions borrow against tokenized assets onchain.

• BNY expanded its relationship with Circle, making USDC the first stablecoin available on the bank’s Digital Asset Custody platform.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

Subscribe now

What you'll read: Why the next two weeks are critical for the Clarity Act, what to watch this week and the top headlines.

With the Senate now in recess until July 13, the fate of the Clarity Act hinges on the work set to take place behind the scenes over the next two weeks.

Staff from both parties, administration officials and industry stakeholders are now on the clock to resolve the remaining issues, including reconciling the Banking and Agriculture Committee texts and reaching agreement on ethics and illicit finance. More on that below.

When senators return, the focus will shift from negotiations to procedure and preparing the bill for Senate floor consideration.

Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has said he wants to prioritize the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the must-pass defense bill, during the week of July 13. If that timeline holds, the Clarity Act could receive floor consideration later that month or during the first week of August before Congress breaks for its summer recess.

Conventional wisdom is that the Clarity Act must pass the Senate before the August recess if it stands a chance of becoming law this year. For that to happen, the bill would need the support of at least 60 senators, including at least seven Democrats, assuming all 53 Republicans vote in favor, which is not guaranteed since during floor consideration of the GENIUS Act, Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Rand Paul (R-KY) voted no.

The support of many Democrats, including two who voted to advance the bill out of the Senate Banking Committee last month, is likely to hinge on whether the White House agrees to a strong ethics framework addressing President Trump’s crypto businesses, which have generated more than $2 billion in new wealth for him since returning to office, according to Reuters.

As of now, sources close to the negotiations say no final agreement has been reached among the parties. However, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told reporters last week that a new draft of the bill could include a revised proposal allowing state attorneys general to sue crypto exchanges that list tokens issued by public officials in violation of the act, a provision aimed at addressing Democratic concerns. Ultimately, though, President Trump will need to sign off on any compromise, making him the final arbiter of the dispute.

Meanwhile, key law enforcement groups continue to oppose the inclusion of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act in Section 604 of the bill, arguing that, as currently drafted, it would make it harder to investigate and prosecute onchain crime. Some industry participants have indicated they would support targeted revisions, raising the possibility that lawmakers will continue negotiating the language in hopes of winning over senators whose votes may depend on addressing law enforcement’s concerns.

Ironing out outstanding issues in the Agriculture Committee's text also remains a top priority over the coming days, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Among the sticking points are federal preemption of state law, how crypto exchanges should manage conflicts of interest and what restrictions should apply to affiliate trading.

Whether pro-crypto lawmakers can surmount the long list of remaining tasks and pass the bill through the Senate before the next recess remains to be seen, and optimism depends on whom you ask.

Some industry leaders believe the time crunch will prove to be a forcing function, creating the right conditions for a deal.

Others worry the calendar could prove to be the bigger challenge, with little time remaining and uncertainty over whether Republicans can secure the 60 votes needed to pass the bill through the Senate.

Still, Crypto In America has learned that Republican senators have a renewed sense of urgency to get the bill passed, driven by heightened political pressure following President Trump's decision to cancel the Housing bill signing, as well as the realization that time is running short.

Crypto compliance isn’t slowing teams down anymore. It’s becoming a growth lever.

Sumsub is the identity verification and compliance platform trusted by 4,000+ companies, including 8 of the 10 largest crypto exchanges.

Their free State of the Crypto Industry 2026 report covers how the industry has shifted into a regulated maturity era: smarter fraud, higher expectations, and a new playbook for teams that want to scale. Inside: how to balance friction and conversion, where Travel Rule gaps remain, and why verification is now a competitive edge, not a checkbox.

Data from 4M+ fraud attempts and 300+ crypto companies surveyed. See how your peers are adapting here.

👀 What To Watch This Week

Monday

The House is in. The Senate is out.

The U.S. Supreme Court enters the final week of its current term and is set to hand down several major decisions, including whether Fed Governor Lisa Cook and former FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter can keep their jobs after President Trump’s efforts to fire them, as well as cases involving voting rights, birthright citizenship and more.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is expected to send the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to President Trump’s desk where he will either sign it, veto it, or let it become law without his signature. The bill includes a temporary ban on a central bank digital currency that would expire in 2030.

Tuesday

10:00 a.m.: We’ll get another read on consumer sentiment as the Conference Board releases its latest Consumer Confidence Index.

Binance is set to stop serving EU clients after failing to secure a license under the bloc’s MiCA framework, with the EU’s transitional period for crypto firms expiring on June 30.

Wednesday

9:00 a.m.: Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is set to speak at the European Central Bank’s annual symposium in Portugal.

Thursday

8:30 a.m.: The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the number of jobs added in the month of June and the unemployment rate.

Tokenization firm Securitize is set to begin trading on the NYSE after completing its merger with a Cantor Fitzgerald-backed SPAC.

Friday

🇺🇸 Happy 4th of July weekend!

Weekend News Flash

ICYMI: The biggest headlines from Friday and the weekend.

• Bitcoin is entering the final week of the month below $60,000, while Ether remains below $1,600.

• Michael Saylor's Strategy announced a new capital framework and a $2 billion share buyback aimed at preserving its long-term Bitcoin exposure. The company also raised the dividend on its STRC preferred stock to 12%.

• The U.S. dollar is on track for its best month in nearly a year, gaining about 2.5% in June as investors weigh Middle East tensions and await U.S. jobs data.

• Bitcoin ETFs are heading for their worst month on record, with nearly $4 billion in net outflows.

• XRP ETFs brought in nearly $23 million in net inflows last week.

• Tokenization firm Securitize expects to raise $400 million through its merger with a Cantor Fitzgerald-backed SPAC before beginning trading on the NYSE under the ticker SECZ on July 2.

• A group of 17 Democratic senators has asked the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee to block the CFTC from using federal funds to sue states over prediction market regulation.

• A new report from Multicoin Capital projects HYPE could surge more than 400% to $319 by 2028, arguing the market is significantly undervaluing Hyperliquid as it evolves into an "everything exchange."

• BitGo said it will lay off 15% of its workforce, citing the need to sharpen its focus on security, trading, stablecoins and AI-powered infrastructure.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

Subscribe now

What you'll read: Interest groups raise concerns about a key Clarity Act provision, crypto-backed candidates rack up primary wins, and what to watch at this morning's House Financial Services hearing on the future of payments.

Law enforcement groups that have emerged as key stakeholders in Senate negotiations over the Clarity Act remain unconvinced that the bill contains adequate safeguards against illicit finance, according to a letter sent to administration officials on Tuesday.

The missive, signed by representatives from the National District Attorneys Association, the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Sheriffs’ Association, cites lingering concerns over Section 604 of the bill, better known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. The groups argue the provision could create oversight gaps that criminal actors could exploit to facilitate narcotics trafficking, fraud, child exploitation, sanctions evasion and terrorist financing.

“Regulatory certainty should not come at the expense of accountability, transparency, victim protection, or public safety,” the groups stated.

The letter was addressed to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and White House Crypto Council Executive Director Patrick Witt, both of whom met with representatives from the organizations as recently as last week.

The opposition comes despite weeks of outreach from the administration, members of Congress and crypto advocacy groups aimed at winning support for the BRCA, a key provision originally sponsored by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN). Supporters argue the measure would protect non-custodial software developers from money transmitter laws and help keep innovation in the United States.

“Our concern is not with individuals who merely write or publish software code, nor with responsible technological innovation,” the letter stated. “Rather, our concern is with broad exemptions that may shield individuals or entities whose activities facilitate the movement of digital assets, create obstacles to legitimate oversight, or weaken longstanding investigative and enforcement authorities relied upon by law enforcement.”

The letter goes beyond the BRCA, arguing the bill does not establish safeguards commonly applied to other financial intermediaries, including suspicious activity monitoring and reporting requirements, while potentially exempting some crypto participants from key AML/CFT obligations.

Notably, the National Fraternal Order of Police and the National Association of Police Organizations, both of which have been involved in the ongoing discussions, did not sign the letter.

At the same time, opposition to the BRCA appears to extend beyond traditional law enforcement groups. A coalition of Catholic organizations led by the Alliance to End Human Trafficking sent a similar letter to Senate leadership warning the provision could “weaken safeguards against illicit finance and create vulnerabilities that traffickers and transnational criminal organizations may exploit.”

So far, the industry has largely treated the BRCA as a red line in negotiations over the Clarity Act. But with support from certain Democratic lawmakers potentially dependent on winning over law enforcement groups, advocates are increasingly signaling a willingness to consider narrow changes that preserve the provision’s core protections.

Miller Whitehouse-Levine, founder and CEO of the Solana Policy Institute, who has been involved in discussions with lawmakers and staff around the BRCA, said there may be room for targeted revisions aimed at addressing concerns around criminal intent and bad actors, but drew a hard line against changes that would narrow the scope of the provision's exemptions.

“To the extent, for example, we can clarify the rule of construction to address potential concerns around specific intent or knowingly trying to do something illicit, I’m completely open to that,” he said.

However, Whitehouse-Levine said he would oppose “fundamental changes” to the provision or the categories of developers it protects, arguing such revisions would undermine the measure’s core purpose.

Crypto Cash Fuels Another Round of Primary Wins

Crypto-backed candidates came out on top in Tuesday’s slate of primaries in Maryland, New York and Utah.

Adrian Boafo, 32, declared victory in Maryland's 5th Congressional District Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House's longest-serving Democrat, for whom Boafo once served as campaign manager.

Boafo, who introduced pro-crypto legislation in the Maryland state legislature, benefited from significant outside spending, including $5.5 million from crypto-backed super PAC Fairshake affiliate Protect Progress, which touted its role in the win.

“We went big and we went early,” a Fairshake spokesman said in a statement. “We did our part to move Adrian Boafo from fifth place to the halls of Congress. He is poised to be a leader in the largest pro-crypto Congress in history.”

Boafo, who also received individual contributions from three Coinbase executives, appears eager to embrace the crypto policy mantle.

“Digital assets play an increasing role in our everyday lives, and I look forward to supporting policies that help build generational wealth in this evolving economy,” Boafo told Crypto In America.

He will face Republican nominee Chris Chaffee in November.

Protect Progress also spent $516,000 backing Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-MD) in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, where she defeated former Rep. David Trone to secure the Democratic nomination for another term. Delaney holds an “A” rating from Stand With Crypto after voting in favor of both the GENIUS Act and the Clarity Act in the House.

Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT), who also holds an "A" rating from Stand With Crypto, received $400,000 from Fairshake affiliate Defend American Jobs in his successful bid to fend off a primary challenger in Utah's 2nd Congressional District.

Over in New York, one of Congress’ most outspoken crypto advocates, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), cruised to victory in the Democratic primary in the 15th Congressional District with substantial backing from industry-aligned groups and donors.

Protect Progress spent roughly $1.4 million supporting Torres’ campaign, while Fellowship PAC, funded by Cantor Fitzgerald and Anchorage Digital and associated with stablecoin issuer Tether, added another $300,000. Executives from Andreessen Horowitz, Ripple, Galaxy Digital, Coinbase, Solana Labs, Gemini and Robinhood chipped in more than $280,000 through individual donations.

Washington is setting the rules for digital assets.

Taking place in the heart of the nation’s capital, the Injective Summit brings together the policymakers shaping the future of digital assets and the builders putting finance onchain.

Featured speakers include:

• Sunayna Tuteja, the Federal Reserve’s first Chief Innovation Officer

• Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and Gabe Evans (R-CO), U.S. House of Representatives

• Christopher Perkins, Franklin Templeton

Crypto In America will be on the ground bringing you the interviews and insights you won’t want to miss. The most anticipated onchain finance event of the year is less than a month away.

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Is August 7th the Real Deadline for the Clarity Act?

This week on the podcast, Eleanor and Gerald sit down with Solana Policy Institute founder and CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine, who explains why he believes August 7 is the Senate’s last real opportunity to pass crypto market structure legislation this Congress and why he’s grown frustrated with calls for more time after 18 months of negotiations.

Whitehouse-Levine breaks down the final hurdles standing in the bill’s way, including the fight over the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, why he believes the provision is critical to protecting software developers from criminal liability, and how ongoing negotiations with law enforcement groups could shape the bill’s path forward.

The conversation also explores the crypto industry’s growing political influence, why durable legislation matters more than temporary regulatory relief, the rise of developer-focused advocacy in Washington, and what could happen to innovation in the United States if Congress fails to act before the window closes.

Catch the full episode on all platforms here.

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Beyond Stablecoins: The Battle Over Crypto Bank Charters

This morning, the House Financial Services Committee will take up the future of payments in a hearing expected to cover stablecoins, bank charters and the evolving role of digital assets in the U.S. financial system.

Ahead of the hearing, I caught up with Rachel Anderika, Anchorage Digital’s Head of Global Operations and one of the witnesses set to be in the hot seat alongside representatives from Stripe, the Bank Policy Institute, Davis Polk and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

While stablecoins and implementation of the GENIUS Act are likely top of mind for lawmakers, Anderika argues the more consequential debate may be about who gets access to the U.S. banking system as crypto companies increasingly seek federal charters.

“There are voices on both sides,” Anderika told me. “We’re going to be talking about stablecoins, how they’re regulated, and what they mean for innovation in payments. But we’re also going to be talking about chartering.”

The hearing comes amid growing tensions between traditional banking groups and crypto-native firms over access to national trust bank charters and the Federal Reserve's payment rails through master accounts. Banking trade groups have argued that crypto firms are seeking bank-like benefits without the same regulatory obligations imposed on traditional banks. Anderika rejects that characterization, arguing federally chartered trust banks remain subject to rigorous federal oversight and examination.

“A national trust bank is a national bank. Period. Full stop,” she said, noting that while trust banks cannot take deposits and make loans in the same way as traditional banks, they remain subject to federal supervision and examination.

At the heart of the debate is whether stablecoin issuers are fundamentally different from traditional banks.

Unlike traditional banks, which use customer deposits to extend credit, stablecoin issuers generally hold full reserves in cash and Treasuries, allowing users to redeem their holdings on demand. That distinction, Anderika argues, should be part of the conversation as lawmakers consider how payment innovation fits into the existing regulatory framework.

When it comes to competition, Anderika, herself a former bank examiner, pushed back on the notion that banks and crypto firms are headed for a winner-take-all showdown.

“I don’t really know a bank that’s not pursuing either a stablecoin strategy or a tokenized deposit strategy, or both,” she said.

That observation may end up being one of the most important themes of today’s hearing. While the public debate is often framed as banks versus crypto, many of the largest financial institutions are simultaneously exploring the same technologies crypto firms are building, making the question less about who wins and more about whether the two can coexist.

You can watch the hearing live at 10:00 a.m. ET here.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

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What you'll read: Crypto PACs pour millions into Maryland's 5th District race and Rep. Ritchie Torres' primary, the Clarity Act takes center stage before Congress leaves for recess, what to watch this week, and more.

Crypto campaign cash returns to the spotlight this week as Fairshake affiliate Protect Progress racks up another major spend in support of Maryland State Delegate Adrian Boafo’s bid to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) in Maryland’s 5th Congressional District.

With Democratic primaries set for Tuesday, the pro-crypto super PAC has spent roughly $5.5 million backing Boafo so far, while the Blockchain Leadership Fund, established by crypto firms Anchorage Digital and Chainlink, has also thrown its support behind his campaign.

Boafo, who previously served as Hoyer’s campaign manager, will face more than 20 other Democratic candidates but enters the race with an edge, with traders on Kalshi and Polymarket giving him roughly a 80% chance of victory. He has also secured several high-profile endorsements, including from Hoyer himself, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and freshman Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), a key architect of the GENIUS and Clarity Acts.

Boafo, for his part, is also running as a pro-crypto candidate after introducing legislation aimed at providing regulatory clarity for digital assets and blockchain technology in Maryland.

“I’m proud to be a strong advocate for policies that create new economic opportunities for Marylanders in the 5th Congressional District, and digital assets are no exception,” Boafo told Crypto In America.

Another race to watch on Tuesday is New York’s 15th Congressional District, where Protect Progress has spent roughly $1.4 million backing pro-crypto incumbent Rep. Ritchie Torres as he enters the Democratic primary as the overwhelming favorite against former Assemblyman Michael Blake and a handful of lesser-known challengers.

Fellowship PAC has also reported spending roughly $300,000 on ads supporting Torres, a longtime crypto supporter who co-founded the Congressional Crypto Caucus with Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN). Executives from several major crypto firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, Ripple, Galaxy Digital, Coinbase, Solana Labs, and Robinhood, have contributed more than $275,000 to Torres through individual donations.

Last week, Fairshake notched its biggest spend of the cycle, pouring roughly $12 million into helping Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) defeat former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson in Alabama's Republican Senate primary runoff. The group also noted it still has roughly $150 million in cash on hand to "continue driving the construction of the largest pro-crypto caucus in history."

Clarity Crunch Time

Pro-crypto senators and industry advocates are expected to push to make as much progress as possible on the Clarity Act before lawmakers leave for a two-week recess on Thursday.

Member meetings and staff-level negotiations aimed at resolving outstanding issues on provisions in the Agriculture Committee text, ethics language, and illicit finance, are expected to continue throughout the week.

Meanwhile, industry advocates will maintain a strong presence on Capitol Hill. The Digital Chamber will host an advocacy day Tuesday, bringing more than 50 members to meetings with senators and staff to advocate for passage of the Clarity Act. The group will follow that effort Wednesday with a tax-focused fly-in, during which members will meet with House offices to discuss crypto tax clarity and recent legislative drafts from the Ways and Means Committee.

“The urgency to act on Clarity is increasing as the legislative calendar shrinks,” Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone told Crypto In America. “We remain committed to getting market structure to the President’s desk this year, ensuring the U.S. has a robust regulatory foundation for digital assets.”

National, tribal, and state gaming groups are also expected to be active on Capitol Hill this week as they lobby senators to include language in the Clarity Act that would prohibit sports betting on prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket.

Sources close to the negotiations say prediction market-related provisions are unlikely to gain traction as lawmakers focus on resolving other outstanding issues before bringing the Clarity Act to the Senate floor after recess.

👀 What To Watch This Week

Monday

The SEC and CFTC open a 60-day joint public comment period seeking feedback on ways to harmonize and streamline reporting requirements across the swap and security-based swap markets.

Tuesday

10:00 a.m.: The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on affordability.

The Digital Chamber will hold a “fly-in” on market structure.

Wednesday

10:00 a.m.: The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on the future of payments.

The Digital Chamber will hold another “fly-in” focused on tax policy.

Thursday

8:30 a.m.: The Commerce Department releases its final estimate of Q1 GDP, along with the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index for May.

10:00 a.m.: The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on “The Future of How America Invests.”

2:00 p.m.: The House Oversight Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs will hold a roundtable on the national security implications of digital assets, including their role in promoting financial freedom under authoritarian regimes.

Friday

10:00 a.m.: The University of Michigan releases its final June consumer sentiment survey.

Weekend News Flash

ICYMI: The biggest headlines from Friday and the weekend.

• Bitcoin is hovering around $65,000 to start the week, while the broader crypto market is mixed as investors weigh progress in U.S.-Iran talks after the two sides agreed to a 60-day roadmap toward a final deal.

• Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who led the U.S. central bank from 1987 to 2006, died Monday at the age of 100.

• Crypto exchange OKX has launched a joint venture with New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange, with former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo set to lead the effort.

• Franklin Templeton filed for the Franklin U.S. Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF, which would reinvest stock dividends into bitcoin exposure.

• Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) introduced legislation to ban lawmakers and their families from placing bets on political and policy outcomes in prediction markets.

• Crypto, blockchain analytics firms and payment companies including PayPal, TRM Labs, Chainalysis and Luno commit to disrupt financial flows linked to the illegal wildlife trade.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

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What you'll read: The latest push to bring the Clarity Act to the Senate floor; Governor JB Pritzker signs a controversial crypto tax into law in Illinois; Rep. Dusty Johnson joins the podcast; and a roundup of the week's top stories.

With just over a week remaining before the Senate leaves for the July 4 recess, pro-crypto senators and administration officials are continuing behind-the-scenes negotiations to position the Clarity Act for a floor vote when lawmakers return.

According to sources familiar with the proceedings, a bipartisan group of senators from the Banking and Agriculture Committees is expected to meet this morning to discuss outstanding issues. Later today, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is scheduled to meet with law enforcement groups as the administration continues its push to build support for the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a key yet controversial provision of the bill.

The measure would clarify that certain non-custodial software developers are not liable for how third parties use their code unless they knowingly intended it to facilitate illicit activity, something law enforcement officials worry could hamper their ability to pursue bad actors operating onchain. As Crypto In America has reported, law enforcement buy-in could prove critical to securing the support of several Democratic senators who have made clear they want those concerns addressed before backing the legislation.

Meanwhile, industry advocates are keeping the pressure on from the outside. On Wednesday, Stand With Crypto organized a Capitol Hill "fly-in" that brought advocates from more than a dozen states to meet with 18 Senate offices and push for final passage of the Clarity Act. The Digital Chamber is expected to host a similar lobbying day on Tuesday.

“The urgency to act on Clarity is increasing as the legislative calendar shrinks,” said Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone. “Our fly-in next week is timed to bring the world’s leading founders, builders, and innovators to DC to make the case for why the U.S. should lead on crypto and pass Clarity now.”

The advocacy push comes as lawmakers race to resolve outstanding issues amid growing concerns that the bill's prospects could diminish significantly once Congress turns its attention to the midterm elections.

“We have got to close this out before August otherwise that door will shut for far too long,” Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s Digital Assets Subcommittee, told Crypto In America. “We cannot count on the lame duck session to do it.”

'A Tollbooth on the Internet': Illinois Signs First-of-Its-Kind Crypto Tax Into Law

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the state’s $56 billion budget into law Wednesday, including a controversial new crypto tax that has industry advocates comparing the measure to a “tollbooth on the internet.”

Pritzker’s signature clears the way for Illinois to impose a 20 basis point, or 0.2%, tax on certain digital asset business activities beginning January 1, 2027. The tax will apply to firms that exchange, transfer or store digital assets on behalf of customers rather than being tied to income, profits or capital gains. The measure is expected to generate roughly $60 million in annual revenue for the state.

According to people familiar with the legislation, the measure was added late in budget negotiations without input from industry stakeholders or any public economic study examining its potential impact.

Critics argue the measure singles out the crypto industry because there is no comparable state tax on the exchange, transfer or custody of stocks, bonds or derivatives anywhere in the country.

“Illinois has created a toll on a road it didn’t build and doesn’t maintain,” said Trish Turner, Tax Director at Crypto Tax Girl and a former IRS Digital Asset Senior Advisor “Stocks, bonds, and derivatives face nothing like it.”

Turner questioned how lawmakers arrived at the 0.2% rate, suggesting it was "reverse-engineered" to meet a predetermined revenue target. She also joined a growing chorus of crypto leaders warning the measure could trigger an exodus of crypto businesses from the Prairie State.

“Illinois just put a tollbooth on the internet,” she said. “The result could be developers relocating, exchanges routing around the state and the blockchain innovation ecosystem that Illinois could have cultivated growing elsewhere. You don’t build a digital economy by taxing the infrastructure layer.”

As for options to overturn the measure, the industry's path forward appears limited. Illinois lawmakers are out for the remainder of the year, leaving potential litigation and public pressure as the most likely avenues for challenging the tax before it takes effect.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has already begun rallying opposition to the measure. In a post on X, he called the tax "remarkably bad" and encouraged Coinbase's more than 1.5 million Illinois customers — whom he pointedly referred to as "voters" — to contact their representatives through Coinbase-backed advocacy group Stand With Crypto.

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Rep. Dusty Johnson Warns Senate: Pass the Clarity Act Before August

This week on the podcast, Eleanor and Gerald sat down with Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s Digital Assets Subcommittee, for a wide-ranging conversation on the Clarity Act, DeFi regulation, CFTC funding and why he believes the window for passing crypto market structure legislation is rapidly closing.

The South Dakota congressman also discusses the biggest hurdles standing between the bill and President Trump’s desk, why he sees parallels between crypto and the early days of the internet and what happens if the Senate sends the House a version of the legislation it can’t support.

Catch the full episode on all platforms here.

Midweek Recap

ICYMI: Here are some of the biggest stories making headlines this week.

• The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged Wednesday, with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh declining to provide guidance on future rate hikes even as several Fed officials continue to project one additional increase this year.

• The U.S. and Iran signed a peace deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but crypto markets largely ignored the news amid a hawkish Fed.

• Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) won the Republican primary runoff for Alabama's open Senate seat, defeating former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson after receiving a significant boost from crypto-backed spending. Fairshake alone spent more than $12 million on the race.

• CME CEO Terry Duffy, who will step down next year to become executive chairman, says the exchange plans to sue the CFTC over its decision to approve perpetual futures contracts.

• Binance is reportedly preparing to halt services for customers across Europe after a key licensing application appears headed for rejection, according to Reuters. The exchange pushed back on the report, saying it remains committed to European users and is continuing to pursue authorization under MiCA.

• A provision prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency until 2030 has been included in a bicameral housing package set for consideration this week.

• Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Uniswap's UNI token with a $100 price target by 2030, implying roughly 40x upside from current levels as tokenized assets increasingly move onchain.

• BlackRock launched BITA, a bitcoin income fund designed to give investors exposure to bitcoin while generating monthly yield through covered calls.

• A bipartisan coalition of senators urged Treasury to maintain a pathway for state-regulated stablecoin issuers, arguing that states should continue to play a meaningful role in overseeing the growing sector.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

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Here's what you'll read: A July 4 signing for the Clarity Act may be a long shot, but many in Washington and the crypto industry still believe the bill has a path to becoming law before year-end. Plus, a look at the week ahead and the top stories we’re watching.

Over the past year, the crypto industry has been given no shortage of target dates for when the Clarity Act might become law. So far, none have hit the mark, and the latest is unlikely to be any different.

During an interview at CoinDesk’s Consensus Miami conference in May, White House Crypto Council Executive Director Patrick Witt said the administration was targeting passage of the legislation by July 4, calling it a “tremendous birthday present” for America’s 250th anniversary.

Since then, the Senate Banking Committee has advanced the bill, with two Democrats supporting it on the condition that stronger ethics guardrails related to President Trump be included in the final legislation. As of last week, negotiations over those provisions were described by one participant as “rocky” and remained ongoing, while lawmakers continue to work through other outstanding issues in the bill.

In an interview with Crypto In America on Friday, Witt said he remains optimistic that the July 4 timeline can still be achieved, pointing to continued behind-the-scenes efforts to resolve issues in the Agriculture Committee's text, finalize an ethics agreement with Democrats, and win support from law enforcement groups on illicit finance provisions, including the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act.

But even if all of those outstanding issues were resolved this week, there simply isn’t enough time left on the legislative calendar to make a July 4 signing logistically possible.

It’s not an opinion, it’s just math.

To make that timeline work, the Senate would first need to merge the Banking and Agriculture Committee texts, secure the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed, achieve cloture on a manager’s amendment, adopt that amendment, and pass the legislation. The House, which is out this week, would then need to approve the Senate’s changes and pass the bill again before it could be sent to President Trump’s desk for signature.

All of that would need to happen in just nine Senate working days — a tall order for a bill that still has several major policy disputes left unresolved.

Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), one of the bill’s chief architects, appeared to acknowledge those challenges in an interview with Crypto In America earlier this month.

“We have to wrap the Banking Committee bill with the Ag Committee’s bill, with the ethics provisions, with some changes to the Genius Act,” Lummis said. “And so to get all of those pushed into one bill and then get the 60 votes necessary for cloture on the floor of the Senate might take a little more time than the Fourth of July.”

Meanwhile, senators appear to recognize that the Clarity Act is not yet ready for floor consideration and are focusing on other priorities. Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) said last week he was optimistic that Congress could send a bipartisan housing affordability bill to President Trump's desk “in the next week or so.”

This week, the Senate is expected to consider the nomination of former SEC Chair Jay Clayton to serve as Director of National Intelligence, while lawmakers continue working toward a bipartisan agreement to reauthorize FISA Section 702, a key national security surveillance authority that expired Friday.

Many in the crypto industry, and on Capitol Hill, view the August recess as the more meaningful benchmark for getting the Clarity Act across the finish line. Even then, some believe the legislation has enough political momentum to continue advancing beyond that point and through the remainder of the year.

“I think it has a lot of momentum now,” Lummis said. “The fact that it came out of the Banking Committee on a bipartisan vote, and now we’re getting lots of support from Treasury, from the White House ... these are the kind of things that give it the momentum to keep us going.”

Adam Minehardt, Chief Policy Officer at Hyperliquid Policy Center and a former congressional staffer, expressed a similar view.

“A lot has been made about deadlines, but in my opinion there is enough political capital invested in this effort that it would be hard to see it falling off the agenda for the remainder of the 119th Congress,” he said.

Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) told Punchbowl News that there was still "plenty of time" to get the bill done and that passage during the lame-duck session following the midterms remained a possibility.

Still, if the Clarity Act isn't signed into law by the end of this year, its biggest challenge may shift from policy to politics. The question then becomes whether the bipartisan coalition supporting the bill can hold together should Democrats take control of the House or Senate following the November midterm elections.

👀 What To Watch This Week

Monday

The Senate is in session this week, while the House is out on a district work period.

The CFTC opens a 45-day public comment period on its proposed rulemaking for prediction markets.

Tuesday

11:00 a.m.: The Solana Policy Institute kicks off its Washington x Wall Street policy event in Chicago. Crypto In America will record a live episode on stage with Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD).

Alabama voters will head to the polls to decide who will advance in the race to fill Senator Tommy Tuberville's open Senate seat. The Republican primary runoff is between Rep. Barry Moore and former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson.

Wednesday

2:00 p.m.: The Federal Open Market Committee will announce its next interest rate decision, with the CME FedWatch Tool indicating that the central bank is expected to hold rates steady at 3.5%–3.75%.

2:30 p.m.: Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will hold his first press conference.

Friday

U.S. equity markets and federal government offices will be closed for the Juneteenth holiday.

Iran is expected to sign a ceasefire agreement.

Weekend News Flash

ICYMI: The biggest headlines from Friday and the weekend.

• Bitcoin is trading above $66,000, lifting the broader crypto market, following Sunday's news of a preliminary peace deal between the U.S. and Iran.

• After its record-breaking public debut on Friday, SpaceX is now the eighth-largest publicly traded corporate holder of Bitcoin.

• The SEC proposed rescinding Regulation NMS Rules 611 and 610(e) to cut costs and let competition, innovation, and other market forces “drive the evolution of U.S. equity markets.”

• The SEC approved T. Rowe Price’s Active Crypto ETF, which could hold as many as 15 digital assets including Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP and Dogecoin.

• Crypto data and research firm Blockworks has acquired rival Messari in a deal reportedly valued at over $10 million.

• Citigroup will begin rolling out tokenized shares of private companies.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

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What you'll read: The two biggest hurdles standing in the way of a Clarity Act floor vote are getting attention this week, though progress on one has been rocky so far. Plus, House lawmakers turn to crypto taxes; Eleanor sits down with Jenny Johnson and Adam Back at Proof of Talk to discuss the convergence of Wall Street and crypto; and a breakdown of the headlines shaping the industry this week.

Senate lawmakers working to reach an ethics agreement as part of efforts to advance the Clarity Act to a floor vote came away empty-handed after a closed-door meeting Tuesday, as first reported by Crypto In America.

It was the first time a bipartisan group of senators — including Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) — along with White House Crypto Council Executive Director Patrick Witt, had reconvened since reaching a tentative ethics agreement ahead of the Senate Banking Committee’s markup of the bill in May.

According to sources familiar with the discussions, key elements of that agreement — including a provision that would have allowed state attorneys general to sue the Department of Justice over a failure to enforce ethics provisions related to President Trump — were walked back by Republican members and the White House during the meeting amid concerns from senators outside the negotiations that such authority could also be used by both parties to target members of Congress.

The proposal has raised constitutional questions among legal experts.

“It’s fine for states to sue the federal government when it acts unconstitutionally, but the idea that state AGs could force DOJ to take action is just bonkers from a constitutional perspective,” J.W. Verret, an associate professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, told Crypto In America.

As an olive branch, Republicans proposed limiting enforcement authority to the Attorney General, and floated impeachment as an alternative potential remedy for ethics violations. Still, the offers were not enough to satisfy Democrats, who characterized them as an “about face” from the tentative agreement reached before the Banking Committee markup. Participants left the meeting frustrated, with one source describing the state of the negotiations as “rocky.”

The group is expected to reconvene Thursday in another attempt to break the impasse.

Ethics remains one of two major hurdles standing in the way of a floor vote, with Democrats, including Gallego and Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), indicating that their continued support for the legislation depends on the inclusion of strong ethics guardrails addressing President Trump’s crypto business interests. Since returning to office, Trump and his family have generated an estimated $2.3 billion from those ventures, according to Reuters.

Winning Over Law Enforcement

The other major hurdle is winning the support of law enforcement groups, which remain concerned that certain provisions in the Clarity Act could hinder their ability to investigate and prosecute criminals who use blockchain technology to facilitate money laundering and other illicit activity.

In an effort to address those concerns, the White House Crypto Council will host representatives from the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, National District Attorneys’ Association and other groups on Wednesday alongside officials from the Department of Justice, Treasury, FinCEN, and members of Congress.

The meeting is expected to focus on Section 604 of the bill, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, which would clarify that certain non-custodial software developers are not liable for how third parties use their code unless they intended it to facilitate illicit activity. Some law enforcement groups worry the provision could make it harder to pursue bad actors operating onchain. Administration officials are expected to argue the language does not shield criminals from prosecution and preserves law enforcement's ability to combat money laundering, sanctions evasion, and other illicit activity.

Just as resolving the ethics debate is key to winning Democratic support for the bill, so too is addressing concerns from law enforcement. Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), have signaled they will not support the legislation unless law enforcement believes those concerns have been adequately addressed.

Meanwhile, time is of the essence. The Senate has just 31 session days remaining before the August recess, which many lawmakers and lobbyists view as the unofficial deadline for passing the Clarity Act before Congress turns its focus to the midterm elections.

The Third Leg of the Stool: Crypto Taxes

The House Ways and Means Committee turned its attention Tuesday to what many in the crypto industry view as the final piece of the policy puzzle after stablecoins and market structure: taxes.

During a hearing on digital asset taxation, Congress’ chief tax-writing committee examined six Republican-led bills and a discussion draft aimed at modernizing how crypto is treated under the U.S. tax code.

The proposals address everything from mining and staking rewards to reporting requirements, crypto donations, tax treatment parity, voluntary disclosure, and the application of existing anti-abuse rules to digital assets. A separate discussion draft targets the use of offshore crypto tax shelters.

The three-hour hearing underscored growing momentum behind efforts to address long-standing tax issues facing the industry, but also revealed a more measured approach among Democrats, several of whom stressed the need to move deliberately before rewriting portions of the tax code to accommodate digital assets.

“We’re wading into a novel topic with a degree of caution, which is an important consideration,” said the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA).

Despite broad support for Congress tackling crypto taxes, not all industry participants were satisfied with the proposals. Among the biggest complaints was the absence of a de minimis exemption for small Bitcoin transactions, which would allow users to make small purchases with the asset without triggering capital gains reporting requirements. Others argued the package leaves several key areas of the digital asset ecosystem without clear guidance.

"Yesterday's Ways and Means hearing delivered real substance," said Trish Turner, Tax Director at Crypto Tax Girl and a former IRS Digital Asset Senior Advisor. "The voluntary disclosure program and staking clarity are meaningful wins. But DeFi, fraud victims, and the broader international tax framework remain largely unaddressed."

Industry leaders are expected to continue working with lawmakers on the proposals, but time is not on their side. With the midterm elections approaching and control of the House up for grabs, it remains unclear whether Congress can forge a bipartisan consensus before legislative priorities shift elsewhere.

Crypto compliance isn’t slowing teams down anymore. It’s becoming a growth lever.

Sumsub is the identity verification and compliance platform trusted by 4,000+ companies, including 8 of the 10 largest crypto exchanges.

Their free State of the Crypto Industry 2026 report covers how the industry has shifted into a regulated maturity era: smarter fraud, higher expectations, and a new playbook for teams that want to scale. Inside: how to balance friction and conversion, where Travel Rule gaps remain, and why verification is now a competitive edge, not a checkbox.

Data from 4M+ fraud attempts and 300+ crypto companies surveyed. See how your peers are adapting here.

Does Crypto Need Wall Street, or Does Wall Street Need Crypto?

This week on the podcast, we air Eleanor’s interview from the 2026 Proof of Talk Conference in Paris with Blockstream co-founder Adam Back and Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson.

The conversation explores the convergence of Wall Street and crypto, including whether institutional adoption is at odds with Bitcoin’s original cypherpunk vision or simply the next stage of its evolution. Back and Johnson discuss the rise of crypto ETFs, tokenization, self-custody, and wallet-native finance, and why some of Wall Street’s hesitation to move onchain stems from the fact that blockchain technology threatens many of the business models that traditional finance relies on today.

They also dive into the future of tokenized money market funds, the growing use of digital assets as collateral, the debate over stablecoin yield, and why both speakers believe the lines between traditional finance and crypto will continue to blur in the years ahead.

Watch this episode on all platforms here.

Midweek Recap

ICYMI: Here are some of the biggest stories making headlines this week.

• The CFTC unveiled its first proposed rule for prediction markets, outlining how the agency would determine whether event contracts violate federal restrictions on markets tied to areas such as war, terrorism, assassination, illegal activity, and gaming.

• CME Group launched Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures tied to a basket of leading cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ether, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK, bitcoin cash, and XLM.

• Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says Robinhood Securities has won approval to underwrite IPOs and plans to be "disruptive" in the market.

• SpaceX's IPO has reportedly attracted more than $250 billion in investor demand, nearly four times the $75 billion the company is seeking to raise.

• Sam Bankman-Fried has formally applied for a pardon from President Trump, two years after being convicted of fraud in connection with the collapse of FTX.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

Subscribe now

What you'll read: Crypto taxes take center stage this week as negotiations over the Clarity Act drag on. Plus, what we're watching this week and a roundup of weekend headlines.

The House will turn its attention to crypto tax reform this week as Senate lawmakers continue negotiations to bring the Clarity Act to the floor.

The lower chamber’s chief tax-writing committee, Ways and Means, will take up the issue Tuesday afternoon in a hearing featuring experts from Fidelity, Coinbase, Coin Center and New York University. The committee will also examine seven discussion drafts that would overhaul how digital assets are taxed in the United States.

The bills effectively break apart the broader Digital Asset PARITY Act introduced in December by Reps. Max Miller (R-OH) and Steven Horsford (D-NV), along with similar legislation from Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), into a series of standalone proposals covering stablecoin transactions, mining and staking, crypto lending, wash sale rules, charitable donations and taxpayer disclosures.

The move has received praise from some of the industry's leading advocacy groups, including The Digital Chamber, The Blockchain Association and the Crypto Council for Innovation. The Digital Sovereignty Alliance, which promotes ethical innovation in blockchain, described the effort as one of the most consequential developments yet in U.S. crypto tax policy.

“Breaking the PARITY Act into seven standalone drafts on staking, mining, lending, and wash sales gives lawmakers a clearer path to get the details right rather than rushing an omnibus,” the group said.

The reaction has not been uniformly positive. Some industry participants have privately raised concerns about specific provisions in the package, though none were willing to speak publicly ahead of Tuesday's hearing.

Illinois Crypto Tax Backlash

The federal tax debate comes as Illinois prepares to implement a sweeping $56 billion state budget that includes a controversial 0.2% tax on certain digital asset transactions, a measure industry groups warn could drive crypto businesses and investment out of the state.

“I think the legislature, by adding this 20 basis point tax…is truly telling you to pack your bags and move,” Olta Andoni, executive director of the Illinois Blockchain Association, told Crypto In America.

In a joint letter, the Illinois Blockchain Association and the Digital Chamber called the legislation substantively unsound, procedurally deficient, and economically destructive, urging the legislature to reconsider the measure.

Illinois is home to more than 300 startups and established firms focused on crypto and blockchain technology. Its largest city, Chicago, is a global hub for futures and derivatives trading, with institutions such as CME Group and Cboe offering regulated crypto products and exposure to digital assets.

The state budget has cleared the legislature and now awaits Governor JB Pritzker’s signature.

Clarity Act Negotiations Roll On

Efforts to bring the Clarity Act to the Senate floor are set to continue this week as lawmakers and the White House work to close remaining gaps on ethics and DeFi and reconcile the Banking and Agriculture Committee texts.

Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told Crypto In America on Wednesday that while a vote before the July 4 recess remains possible, the bill is more likely to be taken up after lawmakers return on July 13.

“We have to wrap the Banking Committee bill with the Ag Committee’s bill, with the ethics provisions, with some changes to the Genius Act,” Lummis said. “And so to get all of those pushed into one bill and then get the 60 votes necessary for cloture on the floor of the Senate might take a little more time than the Fourth of July.”

The GENIUS Act changes Lummis referenced stem from an amendment offered by Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) during the Banking Committee markup that makes a number of technical revisions to the legislation passed last year.

Although ethics provisions and securing law enforcement buy-in for the current DeFi language remain top priorities, the debate over stablecoin yield continues to simmer beneath the surface. Banking groups are ramping up their campaign against the Clarity Act’s stablecoin yield compromise, with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently signaling that banks remain opposed to the bill’s current approach.

At the heart of the dispute is whether stablecoins will pull deposits away from traditional banks. Banking groups argue the bill's yield compromise could still lead to deposit migration, while supporters say those fears are overblown and that banks can benefit from integrating digital asset services into their existing offerings.

Last week, former Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, who served as ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, spoke at a Republican lunch on the importance of passing the Clarity Act. According to sources familiar with the remarks, Toomey sought to reassure lawmakers that banks’ fears of deposit migration are largely overstated as the banking lobby works to convince senators that supporting the bill could come at the expense of local banks.

Lummis echoed that view, arguing that the growth of stablecoins has not come at the expense of the banking system.

“If you look at the statistics, as stablecoins have been issued and become embedded in our economy, deposits in banks have gone up,” Lummis said. “Those are the kind of facts that we need to share… so they can see that these types of financial products can coexist.”

Meanwhile, the industry's lobbying campaign is also intensifying. On Monday, more than 200 crypto organizations signed a letter urging Senate leaders to quickly bring the Clarity Act to the floor.

👀 What To Watch This Week

Monday

10:15 a.m.: SEC Chair Paul Atkins will speak at the National Investor Relations Institute conference in Chicago.

ETHConf kicks off its three-day event in New York City.

Tuesday

9:30 a.m.: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicks off its Capital Markets Summit, which will feature discussions on the future of banking as well as a panel on "nonbank systemic risk" featuring Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Ji Kim.

2:00 p.m.: The House Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing on crypto tax reform.

Wednesday

8:30 a.m.: The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the May Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key inflation gauge.

Thursday

10:00 a.m.: The Senate Banking Committee holds a hearing on artificial intelligence.

Friday

10:00 a.m.: The University of Michigan publishes its May consumer sentiment survey.

11:00 a.m.: The House Financial Services Committee's Task Force on Monetary Policy holds a hearing examining the structure of the Federal Reserve System.

Weekend News Flash

ICYMI: The biggest headlines from Friday and the weekend.

• Bitcoin is back above $63,000 as corporate buyers continue to accumulate, with Strategy adding $100 million worth of bitcoin and Vivek Ramaswamy's Strive acquiring 32 BTC.

• Grayscale filed for a Canton spot ETF.

• JPMorgan, Citi and other major U.S. banks are planning a tokenized deposit network aimed at competing with the growing influence of stablecoins and crypto-native firms.

• Better and Coinbase have issued the first Fannie Mae-backed U.S. mortgage using bitcoin as collateral.

• The Fed's Beige Book shows steady employment and modest economic growth across the U.S., though inflation is beginning to rise amid higher energy prices tied to the conflict in the Middle East.

• CME data now implies just a 4% chance of a Fed rate cut this year following a stronger-than-expected jobs report that showed the U.S. added 172,000 jobs in May while unemployment held steady at 4.3%.

• Coinbase is launching pre-IPO trading exposure, starting with a perpetual futures contract tied to SpaceX.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

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What you'll read: A new PAC launches to back lawmakers supporting legal protections for blockchain developers, putting a key Clarity Act debate front and center; plus Fairshake racks up more wins and BitGo CEO Mike Belshe joins the podcast.

The battle for crypto developer protections is moving from Capitol Hill to the campaign trail.

A new hybrid political action committee called Defend Developers PAC launched Wednesday with a mission focused specifically on championing American crypto developers, DeFi builders and blockchain technologists, according to details shared first with Crypto in America.

The PAC bills itself as the first political organization dedicated exclusively to supporting members of Congress who champion legal protections for developers building blockchain software and decentralized technologies.

The issue has emerged as one of the key flashpoints in negotiations over the Clarity Act, with supporters arguing developers should not be held liable for how their software is used and law enforcement groups warning the protections could make it harder to prosecute bad actors.

It comes as 160 former national security, intelligence, and law enforcement officials signed a letter organized by the Blockchain Association urging Senate leadership to swiftly pass the Clarity Act, arguing that the bill preserves prosecutors' and investigators' ability to pursue illicit activity involving digital assets.

“For too long, developers building decentralized technologies have faced regulatory uncertainty and enforcement actions instead of clear rules and guidelines,” said Gavin Zavatone, founder of DDPAC and policy lead at the DeFi Education Fund, one of the crypto industry's leading DeFi advocacy groups. “While legislation and rulemakings are being written as we speak, for some policymakers there is limited incentive to understand the fundamental nature of software development.”

The group, whose board includes executives from the DeFi Education Fund, Solana Policy Institute, Uniswap Labs, American Innovation Project and Orca Creative, plans to support only incumbent members of Congress, arguing that donor dollars have the greatest impact when directed toward lawmakers already shaping policy.

The PAC said it plans to raise and deploy more than six figures across dozens of congressional races during the midterms, with funding coming primarily from crypto founders, builders and executives with a stake in the future of DeFi regulation.

“Crypto technologists deserve champions in Congress who will go to bat for them,” said Zavatone.

The crypto industry is hosting law enforcement voices on Capitol Hill today. A fly-in organized by the Blockchain Association brings former national security, intelligence, and law enforcement officials to Washington, many of whom signed the letter urging Senate leadership to pass the Clarity Act. The day kicks off with a breakfast briefing, followed by meetings with members and staff from roughly 18 Senate offices.

The group will also host a virtual town hall Thursday featuring congressional and White House leaders, including Senator. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), and White House Crypto Council Executive Director Patrick Witt.

Fairshake Sweeps in California

Meanwhile, crypto's largest industry-backed super PAC continued its winning streak Tuesday, backing a slate of candidates who advanced through their primaries.

Fairshake spent roughly $2.8 million supporting Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA-18), Mike McGuire (CA-01), Jacqui Irwin (CA-26), Rep. George Whitesides (CA-27), Rep. Ted Lieu (CA-36), Hilda Solis (CA-38), Rep. Dave Min (CA-47), and Rep. Lou Correa (CA-46). Rep. Lateefah Simon (CA-12) advanced uncontested.

The group’s spending also included support for Rep. Bob Menendez Jr. (NJ-08) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), both of whom won their primaries. Rounds secured a whopping 77% of the vote.

Fairshake did not weigh in on crypto skeptic Rep. Brad Sherman’s race to advance to the general election, where he will face Republican Larry Thompson in November in a rematch for California’s 32nd Congressional District seat.

Thompson, a crypto-friendly candidate who picked up endorsements from industry leaders during his 2024 challenge to Sherman, finished ahead of Democrat and former Biden White House official Jake Levine, who also received support from individual crypto donors.

Despite Sherman’s persistent anti-crypto stance, Fairshake may have little incentive to spend heavily against him. Sherman defeated Thompson by more than 32 points in 2024 and remains heavily favored in the deep-blue district heading into November.

Next up, Fairshake turns its attention to Maryland's 5th Congressional District, where it has spent roughly $3.1 million backing State Delegate Adrian Boafo in a crowded Democratic primary set for June 23.

A new poll commissioned by the super PAC found Boafo leading the crowded Democratic primary field with 17% support, up from 5% in April and just 3% before Fairshake began spending in the race.

Boafo also boasts the highest favorability rating in the field at 40%, aided by endorsements from Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Governor Wes Moore.

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Data from 4M+ fraud attempts and 300+ crypto companies surveyed. See how your peers are adapting here.

The CEO Behind $100B in Crypto Custody on Banking, Stablecoins, and Regulation

This week on the podcast, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe joined us for a wide-ranging conversation on crypto's next chapter.

We discussed BitGo’s IPO, the state of the market, the future of stablecoins, and why Belshe believes banking is headed for its biggest disruption in decades. He also shared his views on Fed master accounts, crypto regulation under the Trump administration, and how BitGo is helping bridge the gap between Wall Street and the digital asset economy.

Watch this episode on all platforms here.

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What you'll read: The latest on the Clarity Act, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon signals banks aren't giving up the fight over stablecoin yield, and why Custodia Bank may be headed to SCOTUS in its fight for a Fed master account. Plus, what we're watching this week.

The Senate returns from its Memorial Day recess today and has roughly four weeks before breaking again for a two-week hiatus around America’s 250th Birthday.

Before then, lawmakers will need to tackle a reconciliation bill that includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security and potentially President Trump's White House ballroom, additional Pentagon funding requests, and a possible vote on reauthorizing Section 702 of FISA before the current extension expires on June 12.

And then, of course, there’s the Clarity Act, which proponents are hoping to put on the Senate floor before July 4th. Whether that’s realistic remains an open question given the upper chamber’s crowded agenda and the fact that the voting process could take anywhere from one to two weeks.

The market structure bill is also facing more than just a time crunch, as staffers work to reconcile the Senate Banking Committee's version with the Senate Agriculture Committee's text passed earlier this year, a process that could prove more time consuming than originally anticipated.

Here's why: The Senate Agriculture Committee's version passed on a 12-11 party-line vote with no Democratic support on January 29. Industry attention then became consumed by the fight over stablecoin yield, a months-long negotiation between crypto and banking interests that one participant described as "sucking all the oxygen out of the broader process."

Now, with that battle largely settled (at least for now), Crypto In America has learned that lawmakers and industry participants are turning back to unresolved differences in the Agriculture Committee's text, several of which remain under negotiation.

Convincing at least some Senate Agriculture Democrats to change their positions will be critical. The bill will need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, making bipartisan cooperation essential to its path through the Senate.

Banking Committee Democrats Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) voted to advance the bill out of committee, but have said their continued support hinges on reaching an agreement around ethics guardrails for government officials dealing in cryptocurrency, a process Gallego has described as being close to the finish line. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), one of the bill's lead architects on the Dem side, has said ethics provisions are non-negotiable for Democratic support.

Other Democrats, including Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA), have sought additional assurances that law enforcement agencies will retain the tools needed to pursue bad actors operating in decentralized finance, though some industry participants worry this could mean further watering down of legal protections for software developers.

Deadline Realities

While proponents are eager to see crypto market structure legislation move back to the House, failing to get the Clarity Act through the Senate before July 4th would not necessarily be the end of the road for the bill.

Some observers have pointed to the August recess as the bill’s effective deadline, arguing that once lawmakers become consumed by campaign season, other priorities tend to fall by the wayside.

Others disagree.

“A lot has been made about deadlines, but in my opinion there is enough political capital invested in this that it would be hard to see it falling off the agenda for the remainder of the 119th Congress,” said Adam Minehardt, Chief Policy Officer at Hyperliquid Policy Center and a former Congressional staffer.

Still, Minehardt cautioned that the political calculus could change if the bill slips into next year and the midterm elections test whether crypto's political momentum can withstand a shift in congressional leadership.

Jamie Dimon Isn't Happy With the Clarity Act. Neither Is the Bank Lobby.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon didn’t hold back in his criticism of crypto market structure legislation, suggesting the nation’s largest bank won’t accept the current text as written.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the Clarity Act during an interview at the Ronald Reagan National Economic Forum on Friday, Dimon said no, citing concerns with the stablecoin yield compromise and what he described as insufficient consumer protections.

“It allows them to effectively pay interest on deposits, stablecoins or something like that… and doesn’t do anything for AML, BSA and there’s almost no legal protections, and the banks will not accept it that way,” he said.

Dimon’s comments come as Senate leadership eyes a floor vote on the Clarity Act in the coming weeks and as banking groups prepare a fresh lobbying campaign to change the stablecoin yield compromise brokered by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), which they argue does not go far enough to prohibit the payment of yield or interest on stablecoins.

Banking groups like the American Bankers Association have already generated more than 22,000 letters to senators and over 4,500 signatures on a separate petition opposing the current stablecoin framework, according to a source familiar with the effort. People involved in the campaign say the focus is now expanding beyond Congress, with banks making their case to small business owners, farmers and consumers whom they believe could lose access to credit if stablecoins ultimately begin drawing deposits away from the banking system.

The banking industry is not united on the issue. Several large institutions that are less reliant on consumer deposits have signaled greater openness to the compromise, viewing it as a pathway to expanded participation in the digital asset industry.

Meanwhile, the crypto industry appears largely satisfied with where the compromise landed. Coinbase, which fiercely opposed the original yield language released in January, has since moved on to other priorities. Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal told Crypto In America that the banking industry ultimately won a major concession by securing a ban on rewards paid on idle stablecoin balances.

Coinbase's revamped Direct Deposit feature, which rolled out last week as part of a suite of products announced in December and allows customers to direct all or part of their paychecks into the platform and earn yield and rewards on those balances, has raised eyebrows in the banking industry. Critics say it demonstrates that the current stablecoin yield compromise still leaves room for crypto firms to compete for customer balances traditionally held by banks. Others view it as a niche product unlikely to attract many customers beyond existing crypto users, but a sign that crypto firms are increasingly positioning themselves as competitors to traditional banks.

Supporters of the program counter that if the Clarity Act becomes law, the offering would likely be modified as needed to comply with the bill’s stablecoin yield provisions.

Dimon, for his part, made little effort to hide his disdain for Coinbase and CEO Brian Armstrong, refusing to mention either by name. When the interviewer suggested Armstrong was speaking on behalf of the broader crypto industry, Dimon shot back that he was "full of shit."

Custodia Bank Appears Poised to Take Federal Reserve Fight to the Supreme Court

It appears Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long is preparing to take her fight with the Federal Reserve to the U.S. Supreme Court.

As first reported by Crypto In America on Friday, Justice Neil Gorsuch has granted Custodia additional time to file a petition for certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to review a divided 10th Circuit ruling that sided with the Federal Reserve in the bank’s years-long battle over access to a master account.

Long had no comment.

The petition is due July 11 and, if accepted by the high court, would mark Custodia’s final legal avenue after the 10th Circuit rejected the Wyoming crypto bank’s request for a full court rehearing earlier this year.

That denial came after a split 2-1 panel ruling in October that found the Federal Reserve’s regional reserve banks have legal discretion to deny master accounts. The panel sided with a Wyoming district judge, who concluded the Fed was not required to grant Custodia access despite its status as an eligible depository institution.

While the dispute centers on master account access, some legal observers believe the case could ultimately raise broader questions about the authority exercised by the Federal Reserve’s twelve regional Reserve Banks and the extent to which those decisions are subject to judicial review. Such questions could have implications that extend beyond Custodia, potentially touching on the role and accountability of regional Reserve Bank officials within the broader Federal Reserve System.

The Supreme Court agreeing to hear the case remains a long shot. The Court accepts only a small fraction of petitions filed each year, though Custodia enters the process with the backing of three appellate judges who favored rehearing the case.

👀 What To Watch This Week

Monday

The Senate is back in session.

HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE) will report earnings after the bell.

Tuesday

The House is back in session.

The Proof of Talk Conference kicks off in Paris, France.

Eleanor will moderate a fireside chat with Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson and Blockstream CEO Adam Back. Jacquelyn will moderate a fireside chat with Canton Foundation Co-Chair Jorgen Ouaknine and Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov.

Wednesday

8:15 a.m.: ADP publishes its May employment report.

10:00 a.m.: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on the administration's Fiscal Year 2027 budget.

2:00 p.m.: The Federal Reserve publishes its Beige Book, giving a snapshot of economic conditions across the country.

Thursday

8:30 a.m.: The Bureau of Labor Statistics announces Q1 productivity figures.

10:00 a.m.: The House Financial Services Committee hears testimony from the prudential financial regulators.

The SEC's Investor Advisory Committee meets to discuss private markets, proxy voting and fund reporting.

Friday

8:30 a.m.: The BLS releases the May jobs report and unemployment rate.

3:00 p.m.: The Federal Reserve publishes consumer credit numbers.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

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What you’ll read: Crypto emerged a winner after spending millions in the Texas primary runoffs; President Trump wades into the prediction markets debate; Senator Elizabeth Warren sparks backlash for criticizing crypto trust charter approvals; Scott Shay from N3XT joins the podcast; and other stories making headlines this week.

Crypto went 6-for-6 backing winning candidates in the Texas primary runoffs Tuesday night, potentially proving the $2.5 trillion industry’s political influence is still alive and well in U.S. politics.

The industry’s leading super PAC, Fairshake, took credit for helping 38-year-old freshman Rep. Christian Menefee unseat 20-year incumbent Rep. Al Green, 78, in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas’s 18th Congressional District after spending roughly $6.5 million on the race, largely on ads backing Menefee.

“Rep. Green’s defeat proves that anti-crypto hostility carries real electoral consequences, making him the first Democratic incumbent this cycle to lose his seat,” spokesman Geoff Vetter said. “Fairshake was the difference-maker in this race, and we will continue to aggressively back leaders like Rep. Menefee across the country.”

Green, 78, who received an “F” rating from advocacy group Stand With Crypto for voting against pro-crypto legislation like the GENIUS and Clarity Acts, received just 31% of the vote.

Elsewhere, candidates Alex Mealer (TX-09), Tom Sell (TX-19), John Bonck (TX-38), and Carlos De La Cruz (TX-35) all won their respective races after receiving a combined $1.8 million in backing from Fairshake.

The Blockchain Leadership Fund, backed by Anchorage and Chainlink, also endorsed Menefee and Bonck with direct donations to their campaigns, though the PAC has yet to disclose individual expenditure amounts for each candidate.

Attorney General Ken Paxton’s upset win over Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican Senate primary runoff had some crypto money behind it as well.

Fellowship PAC, which received a $10 million contribution from Cantor Fitzgerald and is chaired by a Tether executive, reported spending $500,000 on ads supporting Paxton last week. The spending followed President Trump’s endorsement of Paxton and came after the PAC suspended a planned $1.75 million ad buy for him in April.

Races To Watch

With Texas now in the rearview, Fairshake’s next target appears to be Maryland, where state lawmaker Adrian Boafo is running in the June Democratic primary for the state’s 5th Congressional District. The super PAC has spent roughly $2.12 million backing Boafo so far.

Next week, the crypto industry will be eyeing California’s top-two primary in the state’s 32nd Congressional District, where longtime crypto critic Rep. Brad Sherman faces former Biden White House official Jake Levine in a race to advance to November’s general election.

Sherman’s campaign has been sending out mailers warning about the “dishonest” and “dark underworld” of cryptocurrency, echoing the anti-crypto messaging used by candidates targeted by Fairshake and other crypto PACs in 2024.

Despite Sherman’s rhetoric, no major crypto PAC funds have been deployed in the race yet. It’s possible outside groups are waiting to see whether Sherman advances out of the top-two primary before committing money to the general election.

Trump Backs CFTC in Prediction Market Fight

President Trump endorsed the CFTC’s push for federal preemption of prediction markets, calling it “critically important” that the agency maintain exclusive authority over them.

In a Truth Social post Tuesday, Trump said his administration is setting the “gold standard” for states, while criticizing state officials who have recently opposed the CFTC’s effort to claim exclusive jurisdiction over what the agency views as an innovative financial technology, but what many states argue are effectively traditional gambling operations.

“We cannot have SCUM like Chris Christie, Letitia James, Tim Walz, and JB Pritzker setting the rules!” he wrote. “Other Countries are after this new form of Financial Market, and we want to remain at the top.”

The issue is currently being litigated in several federal district courts, with both the CFTC and a handful of states suing over who has the authority to regulate prediction markets. Many legal experts believe the dispute will eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the same post, Trump also gave a nod to his pick for CFTC Chair, Michael Selig, who assumed the role at the end of last year. His comments come on the heels of a New York Times article alleging the CFTC has allowed crypto and prediction markets to reign supreme and “steamroll[]” regulators, in part due to Trump’s financial interests in both industries.

Those ties include Donald Trump Jr. serving as an adviser to Kalshi and investing in Polymarket through the venture capital firm 1789 Capital, as well as Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, announcing plans to offer prediction markets through a partnership with Crypto.com.

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Their free State of the Crypto Industry 2026 report covers how the industry has shifted into a regulated maturity era: smarter fraud, higher expectations, and a new playbook for teams that want to scale. Inside: how to balance friction and conversion, where Travel Rule gaps remain, and why verification is now a competitive edge, not a checkbox.

Data from 4M+ fraud attempts and 300+ crypto companies surveyed. See how your peers are adapting here.

Scott Shay: Crypto and Traditional Banking Are Fundamentally Incompatible

This week on the podcast, we sit down with Scott Shay, founder of narrow bank N3XT and founder and former chairman of Signature Bank, who explains why he believes crypto and traditional banking are fundamentally incompatible systems and why Wall Street may be moving too fast in adopting digital assets.

Shay takes us on a deep dive into fractional vs. full reserve banking, stablecoins, and Fed master accounts, and why he believes crypto rails will eventually force a complete rethink of the modern banking system.

He also shares his perspective on the fall of Signature Bank, Operation Choke Point 2.0, and why he says the government ultimately “shredded” Signet, the internal crypto payments network he helped pioneer.

Watch this episode on all platforms here.

OCC Crypto Trust Charter Approvals Back in the Spotlight

Just days after the Senate Banking Committee handed the crypto industry a major win by advancing a landmark market structure bill, the committee’s top Democrat was back to warning that the industry is receiving special treatment from regulators and sidestepping existing banking laws.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould on May 18 questioning the legality of the OCC’s recent national trust charter approvals for several “seemingly ineligible” crypto firms, including Coinbase, Ripple, BitGo and Paxos, arguing the companies appear to be using the charters to engage in broader banking activities without being subject to the same safeguards and oversight as full-service banks.

Since December, the OCC has granted conditional or full trust charter approvals to at least eight crypto firms, drawing backlash from banking trade groups like the Bank Policy Institute, which warned the move could “significantly increase risks to the U.S. financial system.”

“Your decision to facilitate this regulatory arbitrage not only conflicts with federal law, it also poses serious risks to consumers, the safety and soundness of the banking system, and the separation of banking and commerce,” Warren wrote.

While Gould has not yet officially responded to Warren’s letter, an OCC spokesperson pointed Crypto In America to a February tweet in which Gould defended the charter application process, saying applications are evaluated under capital, compliance and safety and soundness standards in the Comptroller’s Licensing Manual.

Warren’s claims that the crypto firms were improperly granted national trust charters drew swift pushback from crypto trade association The Digital Chamber, which sent its own letter to Gould defending the approvals.

"The characterization of these approvals as 'apparent violations' of the National Bank Act misreads both the statute and the OCC's longstanding charter authority," said TDC CEO Cody Carbone in the letter.

In an open letter to Warren, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe argued that the firm should not be treated like a traditional bank because it does not take deposits or lend out customer funds, but instead operates as a regulated custodian safeguarding customer crypto assets, which, he says, is the exact type of business national trust charters were designed for.

Midweek Recap

ICYMI: Here are some of the biggest stories making headlines this week.

• Mastercard said it secured a BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services, allowing it to offer crypto services in New York State.

• Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) joined Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) in cosponsoring the SAFE Crypto Act, a bill introduced in December aimed at strengthening coordination between federal agencies, law enforcement, and the crypto industry to combat cryptocurrency scams and fraud.

• Ondo Finance said the company’s president, Ian De Bode, will become CEO following the unexpected death of founder and CEO Nathan Allman.

• SoFi became the first full-service U.S. national bank to offer a stablecoin running on public blockchain rails directly to customers, allowing users to buy, sell, and hold SoFiUSD inside the SoFi app.

• The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at new all-time highs as Micron (MU) led a big rally in chips with gains of 19%.

• Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index fell to -45 in May, its lowest level since October 2022, with 76% of Americans saying economic conditions are worsening.

• DTCC announced plans to enable DTC tokenized assets on the Stellar network, with the integration expected to go live in the first half of 2027.

• Tom Lee’s Ethereum treasury company BitMine increased its holdings to 5.39 million ETH, worth roughly $11 billion and equal to about 4.47% of Ethereum’s total supply.

• SEC Chair Paul Atkins said he would be open to loosening decades-old rules that restrict certain public communications by companies during the IPO process in an effort to encourage more firms to go public.

• Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink Gaming and Solana treasury firm Forward Industries will join the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes on June 29.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

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What you’ll read: A new crypto-backed PAC rolls out its first slate of midterm endorsements while SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce prepares for her next chapter in academia.

A new bipartisan hybrid PAC backed by members of the crypto industry announced its first slate of endorsements for the 2026 midterm elections on Thursday, throwing its support behind a mix of Republicans and Democrats across several key Senate and House races, Crypto In America has learned.

The Blockchain Leadership Fund, established in March by crypto firms Anchorage Digital and Chainlink, said its inaugural endorsements, which will come in the form of campaign donations, reflect an effort to support candidates focused on keeping digital asset innovation in the United States and pushing for clearer rules for the industry as crypto policy efforts accelerate in Washington following the advancement of the Clarity Act through the Senate Banking Committee last week.

The PAC has not yet disclosed individual expenditure amounts for each candidate.

Among the Senate contenders receiving support are Barry Moore (R-AL), who is running to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Senator Tommy Tuberville as he campaigns for governor of Alabama; Kurt Alme (R-MT), who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Senator Steve Daines after he announced in March he would not seek re-election; and Jon Husted (R-OH), who is running against former Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown in Ohio’s special election after Brown lost his seat in 2024 to Bernie Moreno following a roughly $40 million spending campaign by industry-backed super PAC Fairshake.

The group is also backing Congresswoman Angie Craig (D-MN), who is currently in a hotly contested Democratic primary for Minnesota’s open Senate seat being vacated by Senator Tina Smith.

On the House side, the PAC is backing Republican candidate Houston Gaines, a Georgia state lawmaker running for the state’s open 10th Congressional District seat; Jim Kingston, the son of former Congressman Jack Kingston who is running for Georgia’s open 1st Congressional District seat; and Jon Bonck, a Trump-endorsed Republican running for Texas’ open 38th Congressional District seat.

For Democrats, the list includes Adrian Boafo, a Maryland state lawmaker running for Congress in the state’s 5th Congressional District; Christian Menefee, the Texas Democrat who won a 2026 special election to succeed the late Sylvester Turner and is now running for a full term; and North Carolina Congressman Don Davis, who is seeking reelection in the state’s 1st Congressional District.

The PAC said it plans to continue evaluating candidates throughout the election cycle and announce additional support for leaders at the federal, state and local levels who back what it describes as responsible digital asset policy.

Crypto Task Force Chief Hester Peirce to Join Regent University Law School

SEC Commissioner and Crypto Task Force chief Hester Peirce has chosen her next career move after the securities regulator, and it’s not beekeeping. At least not full time.

Starting in November, Peirce will join Virginia’s Regent University Law School as an Associate Professor where she will help expand the school’s academic work in areas like securities regulation, financial markets and digital assets.

“I am looking forward to my next chapter as a professor but, until I leave the Commission, my focus is on the work of the SEC, including the work of the Crypto Task Force,” Peirce told Crypto In America.

Peirce was appointed to the Commission by President Trump in 2018 and has been an advocate for clearer regulatory guidelines for the crypto industry throughout her tenure, frequently criticizing the Biden-era SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement approach to digital assets and earning her the nickname “Crypto Mom.” That stance later helped secure her position as head of the Crypto Task Force, an initiative created at the start of President Trump’s second term to develop clearer market rules for crypto companies around trading, custody, token sales and decentralized finance.

Since launching last year, the Crypto Task Force has held hundreds of meetings with industry participants, hosted a series of public roundtables and worked with SEC staff to issue guidance aimed at clarifying how existing securities laws apply to digital assets, including around custody, token issuance, disclosure obligations and the treatment of certain crypto activities under federal securities laws.

With Peirce set to begin her new role in six months, the White House may soon begin ramping up its search for her successor. One name that has surfaced in recent months is Ammon Simon, Peirce’s former advisor at the SEC, who now serves as Chief Counsel on the Senate Banking Committee and has already interviewed with Chairman Paul Atkins about the position, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Other reports suggest at least two additional names are also under consideration, though it remains unclear how far along those discussions are.

Since the start of his presidency, Trump has not nominated any new commissioners to either of the market regulators. The SEC is currently operating with just three of its five commissioner seats filled, while the CFTC is down to a single sitting commissioner: Chairman Michael Selig.

Midweek Recap

ICYMI: Here are some of the biggest stories making headlines this week.

• The Federal Reserve issued notices of proposed rulemaking for payment accounts, also known as “skinny master accounts,” marking the next formal step in Governor Waller’s push to allow eligible fintech and crypto firms access to the Fed’s payments system for clearing and settlement purposes.

• President Trump signed two executive orders aimed at cutting barriers for fintech and crypto firms while directing the Fed to explore expanded access to payment accounts and services for those companies.

• The SEC ended its decades-old “gag rule,” which required defendants settling enforcement actions to refrain from publicly denying the agency’s allegations, effectively preventing them from disputing the claims.

• Kevin Warsh is set to be sworn in by President Trump as the new chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday.

• In a letter to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) questioned the agency’s approval of national trust charters for nine crypto firms, arguing the companies are seeking bank-like privileges without full banking oversight.

• Trump-backed platform Truth Social withdrew its application with the SEC to launch a Bitcoin ETF.

• SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said the agency will soon seek public input on how to regulate a new wave of novel ETFs, including funds tied to event contracts.

• Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo has joined investment bank Jefferies as a senior advisor.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

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The fate of the crypto industry’s most consequential piece of legislation hung in the balance Thursday morning as negotiations to secure Democratic support came down to the wire.

Ten minutes into the Senate Banking Committee’s highly anticipated markup of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a small group of lawmakers quietly finalized a deal that ultimately propelled the legislation forward with bipartisan support, a breakthrough many believe significantly improves its prospects as it moves to the Senate floor.

The landmark bill, along with seven standalone amendments, advanced out of committee in a notable bipartisan 15-9 vote, with Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) joining all Republicans on the panel to send the legislation to the full Senate, a welcome surprise for many who had spent the previous 24 hours bracing for a strictly partisan markup that could have complicated the Clarity Act’s path forward.

“We went into the markup feeling somewhat defeated after learning Wednesday night that we were not going to get the bipartisan support we wanted,” said Cody Carbone, CEO of crypto trade association The Digital Chamber.

As Crypto In America reported, negotiations between committee Republicans and Democrats ended Wednesday night without a deal despite both sides having made what sources described as “significant progress” on establishing ethics guardrails for government officials, widely viewed as the primary obstacle to Democrats supporting the bill. However, talks stalled after discussions shifted to proposed changes to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, legislation designed to shield non-custodial software developers from prosecution under money transmitter laws, that Republicans were unwilling to accept.

The standoff continued into Thursday morning, including through a meeting of the committee’s five pro-crypto Democrats — Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Alsobrooks, and Gallego — in Warner’s office, where they discussed strategy before heading to the Dirksen Senate Office Building for the 10:30 a.m. hearing.

“Members were still hashing it out as late as 10:29 a.m.,” one Banking staffer told Crypto In America. “It was pretty unbelievable.”

But it wasn’t until after Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) called the hearing to order that the winds began to shift, largely unbeknownst to the packed hearing room of reporters, industry stakeholders and administration officials whose attention was focused on the amendment drama unfolding on the dais. Much of the debate centered on which proposals would ultimately be allowed to receive votes after Scott initially ruled more than a dozen amendments from both Democrats and Republicans “out of order” due to administrative and drafting errors.

Back in the chamber off the hearing room, known as the “ante room,” a small bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Alsobrooks and Gallego, hastily gathered to strike a last-minute deal aimed at salvaging Democratic support.

“It was right after Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren’s opening statement that we started getting more positive signals from committee staff, telling us there was now a potential path to a deal,” Carbone, whose team was communicating remotely with staffers during the hearing, told Crypto In America.

After the compromise was struck, another staffer described the scene unfolding in the ante room as “chaotic and unprecedented,” with GOP aides handwriting draft statements and amendment language to reflect the agreed-upon changes, scrambling to print updated materials and rush them out to members in real time.

“It was one of the more interesting days of my Senate career,” the staffer said.

Ultimately, the deal agreed to by the group included several strategic revisions to five proposed Lummis amendments, including one that removed language from Section 301 of the bill referencing the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act in Section 604. The move has since raised concerns among some DeFi advocates who say the change could strip out critical protections for software developers as the bill moves forward.

Other key revisions included edits authorizing banks and credit unions to engage in digital asset activities, a small tweak relating to tokenization, a ban on insider trading involving ancillary assets, and language preserving state consumer protection laws. All of the new amendments were added back into the voting lineup at Scott’s direction and ultimately passed with bipartisan support, helping secure key votes from Gallego and Alsobrooks, both of whom indicated their support remains contingent on further work being done to the bill.

“I want to be clear: my vote here does not guarantee a vote on the floor,” Gallego said. “We have many outstanding issues still to resolve. Toughest and most critical of all is coming to an agreement on ethics guardrails for elected officials.”

Still, Gallego told reporters after the hearing that the ethics deal was at the “99-yard line,” signaling what could be a smoother path forward after weeks of rocky discussions over how to address President Trump’s crypto dealings.

Securing additional Democratic support from Warner, Cortez Masto and Warnock will likely depend on further negotiations aimed at addressing concerns from law enforcement groups, which argue portions of the bill could limit their ability to prosecute bad actors who exploit blockchain technology.

After surviving one of the more chaotic markups in recent Senate Banking Committee memory, the bill will now be merged with text from the Senate Agriculture Committee before heading to the Senate floor with fresh momentum and (lawmakers and their staff can only hope), fewer last-minute surprises.

What you’ll read: Inside the final push ahead of Thursday’s Clarity Act markup, from banking industry lobbying to ongoing ethics negotiations, plus our wide-ranging interview with CZ, co-founder and former CEO of Binance, and some of the week’s top stories.

Ahead of Thursday’s landmark vote in the Senate Banking Committee, the crypto industry is expressing cautious optimism that months of negotiations may have finally produced a workable version of market structure legislation.

Following the release of the latest 309-page draft of the Clarity Act in the early hours of Tuesday morning, industry players and policy leaders have taken to social media to voice approval that the bill is, at the very least, in a better place than it was in January, when key advocates like Coinbase withdrew support.

At a high level, the latest draft attempts to strike a middle ground between crypto and traditional finance by tightening rules around stablecoin yield and token offerings while preserving key protections for decentralized finance that were absent from earlier versions and sparked industry backlash in January. The bill also folds in a housing section aimed at creating a federal incentive program to encourage local housing growth, co-sponsored by Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), who previously wavered on whether he would back the sweeping crypto legislation but has since said he plans to vote in favor of advancing it on Thursday.

This morning, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong filmed a video message from inside the Capitol ahead of a Senate GOP lunch he is expected to attend this afternoon, calling the Clarity Act a “strong” bill that would “benefit the American people.” Managing Partner of a16z crypto Chris Dixon said the legislation had “significantly improved since January.”

AARP, one of the country’s largest advocacy groups for older Americans and retirees, has come out in support of the market structure bill, saying provisions aimed at regulating crypto kiosks and preserving state enforcement authority would help protect older Americans from fraud.

Some of the nation’s biggest banks have also privately expressed support for the bill, even as other corners of the banking industry wage an aggressive campaign against the controversial stablecoin yield compromise included in the text.

“We are supportive of the bill and really hope to see it pass out of committee on Thursday,” one executive at a major investment bank told Crypto In America. “It’s good for us, but also for the broader industry, to have more certainty and the ability to operate in an asset class the banking industry currently has limited ability to participate in.”

But, as Crypto In America has reported, the banking industry is far from unified. Large banks with retail arms, along with community banks concerned about the impact a burgeoning stablecoin market could have on their own businesses, are currently engaged in an intense lobbying push that includes an online advocacy portal, phone calls, and letters to Senate offices.

Members of the American Bankers Association, which claims to represent banks of all sizes, have sent more than 8,000 letters to Senate offices since last Friday urging lawmakers to tighten restrictions around yield-bearing stablecoins.

And their concerns are not falling on deaf ears. Included among the more than 100 amendments to the bill text filed by Banking Committee members on Tuesday evening is a proposal from Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Tina Smith (D-MN) that would further tighten restrictions on crypto companies offering stablecoin rewards.

Other proposed amendments are also causing heartburn across the industry, including several that DeFi Education Fund says would harm DeFi technology, users, and developers by stripping away key protections for users of decentralized technology.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who criticized the Clarity Act as both a national security threat and a risk to the financial system, proposed more than 40 amendments, including one that would prohibit the Federal Reserve from extending services typically reserved for banks to crypto companies.

It remains unclear which amendments will ultimately receive votes during the markup and, given Republicans’ majority on the committee, many of the more controversial proposals from Democratic members are unlikely to advance even if they are considered.

In the meantime, ethics remains the key sticking point for committee Democrats and could ultimately determine whether tomorrow’s markup receives any Democratic support. Certain members of the Senate Banking Committee met privately this morning in an effort to hammer out a last-minute ethics deal addressing lawmakers’ concerns about the Trump family’s crypto dealings.

Discussions between the lead Democratic negotiators on the issue, Senators Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Republican committee members including Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), are expected to continue into the afternoon.

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CZ Unfiltered: Prison, Politics & Crypto’s Next Era

In this week’s episode, we sat down with Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, the co-founder and former CEO of Binance, for a wide-ranging conversation on regulation, leadership, and the future of crypto.

We discuss launching Binance in 2017, navigating U.S. versus global markets, prior interactions with former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, and reflections on serving four months in prison, including the leadership decisions he says he would approach differently in hindsight.

CZ also addresses Iran-related allegations, his relationship with the Trump family, rebuilding efforts at Binance.US, the AI economy, and what he believes will define the next phase of the crypto industry.

Watch this episode on all platforms here.

Midweek Recap

ICYMI: Here are some of the biggest stories making headlines this week.

• The Senate officially confirmed Kevin Warsh as a Federal Reserve governor and is expected to confirm him as chairman as soon as today.

• Coinbase launched Solana-backed loans, letting U.S. users borrow up to $100K in USDC against their Solana holdings without selling their SOL.

• Ripple’s prime brokerage unit secured $200 million from Neuberger Berman to expand margin trading across traditional and digital asset markets.

• BlackRock filed with the SEC to launch its second tokenized fund using infrastructure from tokenization platform Securitize.

• JPMorgan is launching a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum designed to meet stablecoin reserve requirements under the GENIUS Act.

• Bermuda inked a partnership with Stellar to begin moving payment and financial services onchain as it aims to become the world’s first fully onchain economy.

• Charles Schwab began the phased rollout of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for U.S. retail customers.

Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Wednesday.

If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

Subscribe now