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📰 TOP NEWS

• Senators send fresh ethics compromise to White House as Clarity Act clock runs down 

  Sens. Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego sent a fresh ethics compromise to the White House on Thursday in a bid to break the logjam blocking the Clarity Act, though the details of the proposal remain unclear. Ethics language has emerged as the central obstacle to passage, with Democrats demanding stronger provisions to address Trump's crypto interests, including his pre-inauguration memecoin and family involvement in World Liberty Financial. The draft released last week with Trump's sign-off bars public officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets but excludes other family members, hands enforcement to the Justice Department, and includes a sunset clause expiring in January 2029. A source familiar with the negotiations told The Block that the sunset clause "kills the whole ethics provision entirely," noting that enforcement would fall to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal attorney, making an enforcement action before the sunset unlikely and new lawsuits impossible after it. The bill faces an uphill path to the 60 votes needed for Senate passage before the August 7 recess, and is also drawing Republican opposition over stablecoin rewards language that banks argue would draw deposits away from traditional financial institutions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put the blame squarely on Democrats, writing on X that it was "disappointing but not surprising" to see them "choosing politics on the cusp of a major victory for American leadership." The Crypto Council for Innovation warned in a Thursday report that failure to act would cede US leadership in market regulation and innovation to other jurisdictions and threaten dollar dominance.

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• Bitcoin ETFs post lowest weekly volume since October 2024 as ether funds outperform for second straight week 

  US spot bitcoin ETFs saw trading activity dry up last week, with roughly $8.05 billion in volume marking the quietest full five-session stretch since October 2024, as bitcoin hovered near $64,000 well off its late-2024 peaks. The funds managed to stay in positive territory for a third straight week, though just barely, booking approximately $33.8 million in net inflows after a strong start gave way to $225.2 million in withdrawals on Thursday and another $240.1 million on Friday. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust bore the brunt of the late-week selling, finishing with roughly $95.5 million in net outflows, while Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust and ARK 21Shares partially absorbed the damage with $85.8 million and $78.1 million in inflows respectively. Ether ETFs told a different story, pulling in approximately $103.9 million for the week, more than three times what bitcoin funds attracted and the third consecutive week of positive flows, even though the products hold only about 13% as much in net assets as their bitcoin counterparts. Over the past three weeks, ether products have collected roughly $293.8 million, nearly keeping pace with the $306.9 million that flowed into bitcoin ETFs over the same stretch. Both categories are still nursing significant year-to-date losses, with bitcoin ETFs down approximately $5.23 billion and ether ETFs off roughly $1.15 billion since January.

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• Bank of Russia publishes draft framework for crypto exchange trading and digital depositories 

  The Bank of Russia has released draft regulations outlining the country's first framework for organized trading of digital assets and digital rights, covering new requirements for crypto exchanges and a proposed new category of entity called digital depositories. Under the proposals, exchanges would set their own trading procedures and calculate market and weighted average prices for assets traded on their platforms, while digital depositories would be responsible for maintaining records of cryptocurrencies and digital rights. The new entities would be required to hold between 50 million rubles and 250 million rubles in equity depending on whether they operate on open distributed ledgers or provide post-trade settlement services, with capital required to consist of liquid assets of high credit quality. The bank said digital depositories would operate under the same principles as traditional securities depositories and that it would maintain their official register. The draft has been published for regulatory impact assessment and follows Russia's landmark crypto market bill passed by the State Duma last week, which introduced a legal framework for regulated retail crypto trading while maintaining the country's ban on using cryptocurrencies for domestic payments, with that legislation expected to take effect from September if enacted.

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• Strategy posts $8.2 billion second-quarter net loss as bitcoin price decline hits holdings 

  Strategy, the world's largest corporate bitcoin holder, reported an $8.2 billion net loss for the second quarter, driven almost entirely by an $8.32 billion unrealized markdown on its bitcoin holdings under fair-value accounting. The company held 843,775 bitcoin as of July 26, up 25% from the start of the year, with the stash worth roughly $54.8 billion at current prices against an acquisition cost of $63.7 billion. The results arrived amid growing investor scrutiny over whether the firm can sustain an increasingly complex capital structure built around multiple classes of preferred stock, common equity, and convertible debt. Strategy raised $17.06 billion through at-the-market stock offerings this year, repurchased $1.5 billion of convertible notes at an 8% discount, and expanded its cash reserve to $3.75 billion, which CFO Andrew Kang said covers more than two years of preferred dividend payments and interest obligations. The firm also sold approximately $218.4 million worth of bitcoin under a new BTC Monetization Program to shore up cash and fund preferred stock dividends, departing from its long-standing policy of accumulating bitcoin without selling. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said the company remains focused on building out its "Digital Credit" business despite weaker prices, adding that Strategy also established a $1 billion share repurchase program for its common stock, though no shares have been bought back yet.

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 📌 REMARKS OF THE WEEK

Source: Investing.com

🔐 CRYPTO UNLOCKS

Source: tokenomist.ai

🎟️ EVENT OF THE WEEK

AGENTIC AI SUMMIT 2026

• Welcome to the Agentic AI Summit 2026, hosted by Berkeley RDI and Responsible Decentralized Intelligence Foundation on August 1-2 at University of California, Berkeley.

• Date Aug 1-2 2026

• Detailed Info & Registration

💬 EXPERT OPINION

📊 METRIC OF THE WEEK

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