CLARITY Act stall sharpens focus on Coinbase

The Senate failed a procedural vote on the CLARITY Act on Tuesday after the bill fell short of the 60 votes required to begin floor debate. The Senate calendar tightens ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, narrowing the bill’s path this year.

Ruben Dalfovo, a strategist at Saxo Bank, wrote that the vote increases regulatory risk for Coinbase’s U.S. trading business. He said the legislation would have clarified which digital assets are securities and set market-structure rules that affect registration, which assets are tradable and who may participate on U.S. exchanges.

Shares of Coinbase, Circle and a firm identified as Strategy fell between 5% and 10% after the procedural vote and were trading lower the following day.

Standard Chartered projected that Arbitrum’s ARB token could reach $10 by 2030. The bank’s note estimated Arbitrum captures about 10% of net protocol revenue from projects built on its chain and said the July launch of Robinhood Chain changed the network’s revenue profile. The note estimated September protocol revenue at roughly $5 million, more than five times prior monthly levels. ARB traded near $0.14 in recent sessions and had gained about 86% over the prior month.

Bitmine reported holding about 5.95 million Ether, with more than 5.06 million ETH staked. The company said it added 27,180 ETH in the prior week and estimated its staked Ether could generate about $334 million in annualized staking revenue at current rates. Bitmine valued its Ether holdings at about $15.4 billion, which it said represents roughly 4.9% of Ether’s circulating supply. An Ethereum staking fund shows 84.6% of its Ether staked. Bitmine’s stock rose about 38% over the past month but remained lower year to date.

Federico Variola, chief executive of crypto exchange Phemex, called artificial intelligence “a net negative” for the industry on an industry podcast, saying it diverts liquidity and enables attackers who can find and exploit protocol and wallet vulnerabilities. He cited a July incident in which attackers drained roughly $116 million in Bitcoin from addresses linked to a Coldcard hardware wallet flaw that security professionals believe may have been discovered through malicious use of AI. Rodolfo Novak, chief executive of hardware wallet maker Coinkite, warned that AI-assisted code review now outpaces seasoned experts. Natalie Newson at CertiK noted AI can be used for security monitoring and code analysis.

The procedural vote leaves the timing and content of any future congressional action on crypto uncertain. Whether sponsors can secure the votes needed to advance debate and a final bill will depend on lawmakers’ priorities after the midterm elections.