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📰 TOP NEWS
Senate delays Clarity Act vote until September as Democrats block pre-recess push
The US Senate will not vote on the Clarity Act before its August recess, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune confirming to The Block late Thursday that a procedural vote has been pushed to September. "The Dems are insistent on no Clarity vote," Thune said, adding that Sen. Cynthia Lummis had been "great" and that the bill would be queued up "first thing when we come back." A source familiar with the matter said Senate Democrats were reluctant to take the vote given its potential political implications ahead of November's midterm elections and the crypto industry's growing influence. The delay leaves the few weeks of September session as the pivotal window for passage, with the bill still needing 60 votes to advance and Republican support also wavering. If the Senate passes its version, the legislation would still need to return to the House before reaching President Trump's desk. Several contentious issues have slowed progress over the past year, including stablecoin rewards, illicit finance provisions, and ethics language tied to Trump's crypto interests, with Trump currently weighing a bipartisan proposal from Sens. Ruben Gallego and Thom Tillis that would allow state attorneys general to enforce ethics restrictions and reportedly require Trump to divest from crypto-related businesses. Industry groups expressed disappointment but vowed to keep pushing, with Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone saying "the fight is far from over" and Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Ji Hun Kim saying efforts would continue "until the Clarity Act is signed into law."
Putin signs landmark crypto law bringing retail trading under state oversight while maintaining payment ban
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency market, establishing rules for exchanges, custodians, brokers, clearing houses, and investors while preserving the existing ban on using crypto as a means of domestic payment. Retail investors will be permitted to buy the most liquid cryptocurrencies up to a cap of 300,000 rubles ($3,700) per year per intermediary, while qualified investors face no such limits, with both categories required to pass suitability testing. Crypto exchanges must join a special registry and a financial market self-regulatory organization, with a minimum equity requirement of 15 million rubles ($185,200) and a grace period until March 1, 2027, for existing operators. Cross-border settlements remain permitted for foreign trade contracts, building on Russia's reported use of crypto in international trade since 2024 to counter Western sanctions. The legislation takes effect September 1, 2026, with provisions governing the issuance and circulation of crypto assets following on September 1, 2027. The law represents a significant shift in Russia's approach to digital assets, complementing draft regulations released last week by the Bank of Russia on organized crypto trading, though it arrives alongside tightening restrictions on mining, with a government decree banning crypto mining across Moscow and parts of the Kursk region through the end of 2032.
Democratic senators call on SEC to investigate Trump memecoin over $3.81 billion in investor losses
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins calling for an investigation into President Trump's memecoin, pointing to reports that nearly 1 million crypto wallets have lost a combined $3.81 billion since the token launched days before Trump's inauguration in January 2025. The senators accused Trump of being involved in a "rug pull" and said the SEC must determine whether a fraudulent scheme is underway, noting that Trump made $636 million from the coin while actively encouraging supporters to trade it. As of Tuesday, TRUMP carries a market cap of $362 million, ranked 112th among cryptocurrencies. The letter lands at a sensitive moment as the White House weighs a fresh ethics compromise designed to unblock the Clarity Act ahead of the Senate's Friday departure for its August recess. A previous version signed off by Trump drew Democratic opposition partly because it left enforcement to the Justice Department and excluded family members of public officials from its scope. The SEC has previously stated that memecoins are not securities, and the White House and SEC both declined to comment on the senators' letter. TD Cowen's Washington Research Group said Tuesday it expects the SEC to move ahead with exemptive relief plans for digital assets if the Clarity Act fails to advance this week.
JPMorgan flags market share risks for Hyperliquid as US regulated platforms expand and HYPE ETF inflows cool
JPMorgan analysts warned that Hyperliquid's market share could come under pressure from two directions: growing competition from newly licensed US perpetual futures platforms and intensifying rivalry in prediction markets. "The launch of US-regulated crypto perpetual futures products could accelerate a shift in liquidity away from offshore and decentralized venues to onshore venues," the analysts wrote, adding that decentralized platforms also face concerns over unlicensed derivatives activity, limited KYC and AML controls, manipulation risks, and weaker consumer protections. Hyperliquid expanded into prediction-style markets in May with the launch of "Outcomes," but competition in that space remains fierce from both existing players and new entrants. The analysts noted that HYPE's value is closely tied to fees generated from perpetual futures trading, making activity on its platform a critical driver of the token's outlook. ETF inflows into Hyperliquid products, which peaked in May and June as a share of assets under management, have cooled in July and August, a trend the analysts said likely reflects those mounting competitive pressures. The broader crypto ETF market has moved in the opposite direction, returning to small inflows in July and August after heavy outflows in May and June. HYPE remains the fourth-largest asset held in corporate crypto treasuries behind bitcoin, ether, and Solana, and the analysts said tracking ETF flows alongside Hyperliquid's trading and prediction market share would be "key to its outlook going forward."
🎟️ EVENT OF THE WEEK
THE AI UNDERGROUND 2026 ATLANTA
The AI Underground conference takes place August 15-16 at Atlanta’s BitLab, gathering people building the future of freedom with AI. From open weight models to open source agents, the AI Underground brings together the minds building AI into a technology of liberation.
Lineup announced in waves. The names below are the kind of builder we book: people who run real models in a real room, not roadmap theater.
Date Aug 15-16 2026
💬 EXPERT OPINION
In a world where Clarity fails and the SEC lays out rules instead, crypto will have at least two and a half years — until a new administration could potentially install a new SEC chair — to make continued progress,”
“At that point, no SEC chair will be able to put the genie back in the bottle."
📊 METRIC OF THE WEEK
Our researchers designed this metric with ❤️
GLOSSARY CORNER First Reusable Proof of Work (RPOW) was a digital cash system created by cryptographer Hal Finney in 2004 that allowed proof of work tokens to be reused and transferred between users, serving as a significant precursor to Bitcoin and one of the earliest practical implementations of a blockchain-like transaction system. | EDITOR’S CHOICE |
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