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Bitcoin ‘Compressed’ at $62,000 as a Four-Year Adoption Trend Stays Intact

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Bitcoin ‘Compressed’ at $62,000 as a Four-Year Adoption Trend Stays Intact

Bitcoin (BTC) is “compressed” at low levels but its classic cycles remain intact, say new research.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin is acting similar to prior cycles as it circles a key four-year trend line.
  • Analysis says that BTC price action is currently “compressed” as it trades below a $76,400 target.
  • A new estimate put the bear market as just over 70% complete.

Analysis on $62,000 BTC price: Bitcoin “not broken”

In an X post on Wednesday, analyst David Eng said that BTC price action still “runs on two clocks.”

“400-day clock, $BTC looks cyclical. ~4-year clock, the cycle noise gets filtered out and the adoption structure appears,” he summarized.

Marking time for Eng are the 400-day simple moving average (SMA), as well as its four-year equivalent. The former is notable for its ability to act as support throughout Bitcoin bull markets, seeing no daily candle closes below it this cycle or last.

BTC/USD one-day chart with 400SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

On four-year time frames, meanwhile, a cleaner uptrend emerges, with price fluctuating above and below the trend line depending on its position in the cycle.

“The point is that Bitcoin keeps stretching away from this adoption structure and then reverting back toward it,” Eng summarized.

Currently, the four-year trend line suggests a fair price of around $76,400, making BTC/USD undervalued by around 20%. A chart uploaded by Eng also shows Bitcoin’s Power Law price, this now well into uncharted territory at nearly $135,000.

“$BTC is not broken,” he concluded. 

“It is compressed below its adoption structure.”

Bitcoin bear market losses could resume in August

As Cointelegraph reported, historical comparisons suggest that Bitcoin’s current bear market will continue for some months yet.

Related: US dollar strength hits highest since May 2025: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

The latest estimates from trader and analyst Rekt Capital put the current downtrend at around 71% complete.

His analysis continues to focus on the fate of the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA), currently at $63,900.

“At this stage, if June Monthly Closes just like this at $62k then that would confirm the breakdown from the 50-Month EMA. So it July turns into a green month, then that could see price turn the 50 EMA into new resistance,” he told X followers. 

“Then August would cancel out July and send Bitcoin into downside continuation.”

BTC/USD one-day chart with 50-month EMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Trump White House Negotiating CLARITY Act Ethics Deal With Senate Democrats

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Trump White House Negotiating CLARITY Act Ethics Deal With Senate Democrats

A Trump White House official is negotiating an ethics compromise on the CLARITY Act with Senate Democrats, the last major sticking point before a floor vote, as Senator Cynthia Lummis says the US is finally close to getting digital asset legislation right.

A Trump White House official is now directly negotiating an ethics compromise on the CLARITY Act with Senate Democrats, the last major sticking point standing between the crypto market structure bill and a Senate floor vote.

The development was reported by journalist Pete Rizzo on Tuesday, citing Politico, as the bipartisan group works to resolve a dispute over how the bill would restrict senior government officials, including President Donald Trump, from holding crypto interests. The talks have run through the White House Crypto Council, whose executive director Patrick Witt has been part of the three-party negotiations alongside Senate Republicans and Democrats.

The Ethics Gate

The ethics provision is the toughest of the remaining negotiations on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Senate Democrats including Ruben Gallego and Kirsten Gillibrand have conducted close talks with Republican counterparts and the White House over language limiting officials’ crypto ties, as CoinDesk reported on Tuesday.

The dispute centers on Trump’s own holdings. The president and his family have generated an estimated $2.3 billion from crypto ventures since he returned to office, according to Reuters as cited by Crypto in America. Those interests span a stake in World Liberty Financial, the crypto ties of Truth Social, and his namesake memecoin, which complicates any clean path to compliance if the restrictions were to reach the president.

Witt has previously said his office wanted the limits to cover a wide swath of government officials rather than target the president directly, a framing Democrats have resisted.

A Walked-Back Deal

Earlier talks had produced a tentative agreement before the Senate Banking Committee advanced the bill in May, but key pieces were later pulled back. A provision that would have let state attorneys general sue the Department of Justice over a failure to enforce the ethics rules was dropped by Republicans and the White House, Crypto in America reported on June 10.

Republicans countered by offering to limit enforcement authority to the Attorney General and floated impeachment as an alternative remedy, but Democrats rejected the offers as a reversal of the earlier deal. Senators Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks have signaled their support hinges on strong ethics guardrails addressing Trump’s crypto business.

The fresh round of White House negotiations marks a return to the table after that impasse, with the administration now directly engaged on a compromise rather than walking away.

Lummis Sees Progress

Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the Republican negotiators, said the US is finally close to getting digital asset legislation right, casting the moment as the most promising yet for the bill she has championed. She has kept up a steady stream of posts urging her colleagues to move.

“Software developers should not need an army of lawyers to know if their code is legal,” Lummis wrote on X over the weekend. “The Clarity Act ends that absurdity.”

The Senate Banking Committee advanced an amended version of the bill in a bipartisan vote in May, after the House passed its own version by a wide bipartisan margin in July 2025. The Senate placed the measure on its legislative calendar on June 1, making it eligible for full floor consideration.

The Floor Math

Ethics is one of two top hurdles, alongside law enforcement concerns over the bill’s developer-liability shield. Crypto lobbyists are pushing for a July floor vote, leaving a narrow window before the Senate’s August recess that many view as the unofficial deadline.

The Defiant has tracked the bill’s path through the chamber, where seven Democratic votes have become the gate to clearing a 60-vote threshold. Lummis has also been pressing for a floor vote before the recess as the House lines up a July field hearing.

Analysts have warned that the Senate likely needs to pass the bill before August for it to become law this year, with the odds narrowing sharply if lawmakers miss that deadline ahead of the midterm elections.

Strategy’s MSTR Stock Flashes Dot-Com-Era Setup That Preceded 99% Plunge

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Strategy’s MSTR Stock Flashes Dot-Com-Era Setup That Preceded 99% Plunge

Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) is testing a technical setup that last appeared before the stock’s 99% collapse during the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s.

Key takeaways:

  • MSTR is testing a monthly head-and-shoulders setup similar to the one that preceded its dot-com-era collapse.
  • Strategy’s shrinking cash reserve and rising dividend obligations are increasing dilution risk for MSTR common shareholders.

MSTR bearish reversal pattern points to 80% downside risk

As of late June, MSTR’s monthly chart was painting a potential head-and-shoulders (H&S) pattern.

An H&S pattern develops when the price forms three peaks, with the middle peak, called the “head,” being steeper than the other two, which are called “shoulders.” The neckline is the support level connecting the major pullbacks between those peaks.

The pattern typically resolves when the price breaks below the neckline and, in a perfect scenario, falls by as much as the maximum distance between the head and the neckline.

MSTR monthly performance chart. Source: TradingView

MSTR has formed a near-perfect H&S pattern since March 2024 and risks a breakdown below the neckline support at $100–$105.

A decisive move below it would confirm the bearish setup. It could open the door to a deeper, multi-year correction toward the measured target of around $20, down approximately 80% from current levels.

The structure looks similar to the head-and-shoulders top MSTR formed during the dot-com bubble era. Back then, the stock broke below a comparable neckline setup before collapsing by more than 99% from its peak in two years.

MSTR monthly performance chart. Source: TradingView

Strategy cash squeeze raises dilution risk for MSTR shareholders

Strategy’s common stock, MSTR, is facing fresh dilution risk as the company’s cash reserve shrinks and its preferred-stock dividend burden grows.

As of June, Strategy’s US dollar cash reserve had fallen 38% since the start of 2026, while its yearly dividend obligations had nearly quadrupled to $1.2 billion, according to CryptoQuant analyst Julio Moreno.

Strategy cash reserve and dividend coverage. Source: CryptoQuant

The company uses cash to pay dividends on its preferred stocks, primarily Stretch (STRC).

But Moreno said Strategy’s preferred-dividend coverage has dropped to about 14 months from more than seven years, meaning it now has enough cash to cover just over one year of STRC dividend payments.

That pressure has shown up in STRC’s market price. STRC fell to a record low of $82.50 last week and has since stayed mostly between $82 and $89, well below its $100 par value.

STRC price and yield chart. Source: STRC.LIVE

The decline has pushed STRC’s effective yield above 13%, compared with its stated dividend rate of about 11.5%, showing investors are demanding a higher return to hold it.

“At current dividend obligations of $1.2 billion per year, restoring 24 months of coverage would require a cash reserve of approximately $2.8 billion, roughly twice what Strategy holds today,” Moreno said, adding:

“A higher cash reserve is the most direct signal the market needs to regain confidence in STRC.”

Strategy holds 847,363 BTC, acquired at an average price of about $75,650 per coin, higher than today’s BTC price of around $62,600. Selling Bitcoin during a downturn could lock in losses and weaken its long-running accumulation narrative.

Instead, Strategy has raised STRC’s dividend rate and issued more MSTR common shares to raise cash. For instance, the company sold 2.71 million MSTR common shares for about $335.5 million in June, while using only $34.9 million of the proceeds to buy 520 BTC.

That keeps Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings largely intact, but it increases dilution risk for existing MSTR shareholders.

Related: Bitcoin price is down over 40% since STRC launched: Is Strategy ‘fine’?

If STRC remains below $100, Strategy may need to keep issuing common shares, slow Bitcoin purchases, or rebuild cash reserves. Each option could weigh on MSTR as the stock tests a bearish technical breakdown.

Nearly 100 Catholic Leaders Oppose CLARITY Act Over Trafficking Safeguard Provisions

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Nearly 100 Catholic Leaders Oppose CLARITY Act Over Trafficking Safeguard Provisions

Close to 100 Catholic bishops and church leaders have sent a letter to Senate leadership opposing the CLARITY Act, arguing that a provision shielding non-custodial developers from money-transmitter rules would weaken federal safeguards against human trafficking and other financial crimes.

Close to 100 Catholic bishops and church leaders have sent a letter to Senate leadership opposing the CLARITY Act, arguing that one of its core provisions would weaken federal safeguards against human trafficking and other financial crimes ahead of a Senate floor vote.

The letter, addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, was sent Tuesday by the Alliance to End Human Trafficking (AEHT), an umbrella organization backed by Catholic religious congregations. Punchbowl News first reported the letter, which The Block separately obtained. Signatories include leaders from the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Philadelphia, Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes.

Section 604 Dispute

The group’s objection centers on Section 604 of the CLARITY Act, which codifies the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA). That provision would establish that non-custodial blockchain software developers are not money transmitters and bear no liability for crimes committed by users of their platforms. The Catholic-affiliated coalition contends the language would introduce regulatory gaps exploitable by traffickers, organized crime networks, and sanctions evaders.

“The Catholic Church has long taught that economic systems and markets must ultimately serve the human person, especially the poor, vulnerable, and those at greatest risk of exploitation,” the letter states, as reported by The Block. The letter warned the provision “could create broad carveouts and regulatory ambiguities that may make it more difficult to responsibly monitor illicit financial activity tied to trafficking, organized crime, child exploitation, sanctions evasion, and other forms of abuse.”

The AEHT also called on Congress to weigh Section 604 against parallel legislative work, writing that “policymakers should avoid creating unintended loopholes that could undermine” anti-trafficking efforts underway in other legislation, including the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act.

Industry Pushback

Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone pushed back on Tuesday. “Let’s be very clear about what Section 604 does,” Carbone said in a post on X. “Section 604 says NON-CUSTODIAL developers are not money transmitters. Those who are building tools are different than those running banks.”

The Digital Chamber separately confirmed its staff were on Capitol Hill on Tuesday meeting with senators, including Lummis, to advocate for the bill. “Today, our team and members are on Capitol Hill, meeting with legislators and advocating for the Clarity Act to bring a clear roadmap to digital asset market structure,” the organization posted on X.

The BRCA provision has been a sustained flashpoint in CLARITY Act negotiations. Critics see it as a potential shield for illicit activity; backers argue it is essential to prevent non-custodial developers, who cannot control how users interact with their software, from facing the same regulatory burden as banks and payment processors.

Widening Opposition Coalition

The AEHT letter adds a religious-institutional voice to an opposition bloc that already includes law enforcement and civil society groups. Former national security officials have pressed Senate leadership to pass the bill, while gaming industry groups, tribal organizations, and unions have separately pushed senators to strip sports prediction-market provisions. Banks have also raised concerns about the bill’s stablecoin framework.

On the other side, more than 1,200 tech companies and over 200 crypto firms have publicly urged Senate passage.

The CLARITY Act sits on the Senate floor calendar, eligible for a vote whenever leadership schedules one. The bill needs at least seven Democratic votes to clear the 60-vote cloture threshold. The August recess has emerged as a hard deadline; failure to clear cloture before then would push negotiations into the fall, with November midterms complicating the vote math further. Senator Lummis has pressed for a Senate floor vote before the recess, and the House has set a CLARITY Act field hearing for July.

Prediction markets on Polymarket assign 42% probability that President Trump signs the CLARITY Act before the end of 2026, per crypto.news.

Bitcoin clings to $62,500 as bears tighten grip on crypto market

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Bitcoin clings to $62,500 as bears tighten grip on crypto market

The crypto market remained sluggish and weak on Wednesday as bitcoin BTC$62,807.19 and ether (ETH) fell less than 0.4% since midnight UTC and the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) lost 0.9%, with 18 of its constituents declining.

The lack of a meaningful bounce will be the largest concern, especially as U.S. equity futures began to recover from Tuesday’s tech selloff.

A portion of the altcoin market outperformed its peers, with jupiter (JUP) and monero (XMR) posting gains of between 2% and 4% to suggest investor appetite is still alive despite bearish market conditions.

Bitcoin now needs to avoid slipping back below the psychological level of support at $60,000, which would trigger a return to a trading range not seen since late 2024 with $52,000 emerging as a key level to the downside.

Derivatives positioning

  • Trading has slowed in the derivatives market, with volume down 27% to $141 billion int the past 24 hours, while open interest has increased by 2% to $106 billion. Liquidations tallied $158 million, the lowest in two weeks.
  • BTC futures open interest (OI) is holding steady at around 730K BTC for the eighth straight day, signaling consolidation at current levels.
  • ETH futures are showing renewed action. OI rose to 14.3 million ETH, the most in two weeks and up from a recent low of 13.74 million.
  • The increase occurred as the spot price fell from roughly $1,780 to $1,650 over the past two days, a combination that typically indicates traders shorting into the rally. While funding rates hold slightly positive, showing some demand for bull exposure, 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) is negative, a sign that bears are leading price action through market orders rather than passive limit orders.
  • SOL futures are busier than ever, with OI at a lifetime high of 77.68 million tokens. But both funding rates and 24-hour OI-adjusted CVD are negative, meaning the action is being driven by fresh shorts, or bearish bets, on the token.
  • In contrast, ZEC’s market is cooling fast, with OI retreating to 2 million tokens from near 2.55 million tokens last month.
  • Broadly speaking, bears appear to be leading price action in most of the top 25 tokens, as is evident from negative OI-adjusted CVDs for the second straight day.
  • Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index (BVIV) has cooled to 43% from nearly 48% on Tuesday. Ether’s volatility index displays a similar pattern.
  • On Deribit, the one-week skew widened to 10.9 vol points in favor of puts from roughly 7 points a day ago, a clear sign of intensifying downside concerns. The one-month skew also expanded.
  • Block flows on Paradigm featured a straddle strategy involving call and put options at the $62,000 strike, both expiring July 3. A straddle buyer bets on elevated volatility.

Token talk

  • While monero and jupiter performed well as Wednesday dawned, the same cannot be said for the likes of ethena (ENA), pump (PUMP) and stellar (XLM), all of which tumbled between 2.2% and 3.5% since midnight UTC.
  • Ethena has now lost more than 90% of its value since touching a record high of $0.87 last September. The yield-generating DeFi platform is suffering from a strategy that depends on bullish market conditions, including positive funding rates.
  • Similar drawdowns have been seen across veteran tokens such as LTC$42.19 and ADA$0.1483, which failed to reach their respective 2021 heights in the recent bull market, effectively trading in a macro downtrend since then.
  • The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) continued to set new ground on Wednesday and is now challenging its May 2025 high. A strengthening dollar is typically seen as a negative for risk assets, including altcoins, because it suggests investors feel safer in cash.

Congress Passes Fed CBDC Ban Through 2030, Sends Bill to Trump

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Congress Passes Fed CBDC Ban Through 2030, Sends Bill to Trump

Both chambers of Congress have passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency until December 31, 2030. The House cleared the bill 358-32 on Tuesday, one day after the Senate’s 85-5 vote, sending it to President Trump for signature.

Both chambers of Congress have passed legislation barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency through 2030, with the bill heading to President Trump for signature after the House cleared it Tuesday.

The House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act with a large bipartisan majority on Tuesday, one day after the Senate’s 85-5 passage Monday. The bill’s CBDC prohibition bars the Federal Reserve or any Federal Reserve bank from issuing, creating, or facilitating a central bank digital currency, effective through December 31, 2030. “Today, Congress delivered a major win for families working toward the American Dream,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said in a statement Tuesday.

Housing Act Vehicle

The CBDC ban traveled inside a broader housing affordability package. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act targets corporate landlord concentration in single-family housing, streamlines development permitting, and updates HUD programs. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill co-led the bill alongside Ranking Member Maxine Waters, Senate Banking Chairman Scott, and Senate Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren. The House passed its amended version 396-13 in May before the Senate incorporated the changes into a final reconciled text. The deal to unify the two chambers’ versions landed last week, ending months of cross-chamber delays. Hill called the process proof that “Washington still works.”

The CBDC language was added to the housing bill to secure House Republican support. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who has led anti-CBDC legislation in the House for years, has consistently argued that a Fed-issued digital currency would undermine Americans’ financial privacy and hand government undue control over transactions. The Senate’s 85-5 margin showed the ban also commanded substantial Democratic backing. That broad coalition is now both chambers on record: the first statutory prohibition of a Fed-issued retail digital dollar in US history.

Stablecoin Runway

The prohibition settles one dimension of the US digital-payments landscape for the next four years. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the signing of the GENIUS Act marked “a seminal moment for digital assets and dollar supremacy” when Trump signed it into law in 2025. Read together, the stablecoin authorization and the CBDC ban define Washington’s digital-dollar posture: private dollar tokens, regulated under the GENIUS Act, are the channel the administration is backing. The Fed is off the field.

Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT together hold roughly 84% of a stablecoin market above $308 billion in capitalization, according to CoinGecko data. Banks, payment networks, and fintechs integrating stablecoin settlement rails face no Fed-issued digital-dollar entrant through the end of 2030. For institutional payments desks assessing vendor or settlement-rail decisions over a multi-year horizon, the statutory ban provides a planning anchor on the competitive landscape. The Clarity Act, pressing toward a Senate floor vote ahead of the August recess, addresses broader digital-asset market structure in a parallel track.

2030 Sunset

The ban expires at year-end 2030 rather than running permanently. Some House Republicans in the Freedom Caucus pushed for a permanent prohibition; the four-year sunset was the compromise that secured final bicameral agreement. A future Congress and administration could revisit the question after 2030, though the 85-5 Senate margin represents a broad bipartisan coalition that would require significant political realignment to reverse.

The bill does not restrict commercial banks or private entities from building their own digital-dollar products. It applies only to the Federal Reserve and Federal Reserve banks. Trump is expected to sign the legislation; Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House backed the housing bill throughout the bicameral negotiation.

Forgotten coin litecoin (LTC) could surprise everyone before its next halving: Crypto Daily

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Forgotten coin litecoin (LTC) could surprise everyone before its next halving: Crypto Daily

Traders may want to keep an eye on LTC$41.82 in the coming weeks and months. One of the earliest altcoins, LTC may see bullish price action, potentially outperforming the broader market, including bitcoin BTC$62,387.04.

Here’s why.

Litecoin’s fourth reward halving is due around July 27, 2027 when the payment will drop by 50% to 3.125 LTC. Litecoin has a peculiar tendency to bottom out anywhere between six to 12 months before the event.

The evidence is there.

LTC bottomed in late June 2022 at around $40, just over a year before the third halving on Aug. 2, 2023. In the intervening period, it rallied to as high as $114 by July 2023, only to pull back to $80 in the lead-up to the event. In November 2022, the month that crypto exchange FTX collapsed and pulled down the wider market, litecoin actually rose more than 40%.

A similar pattern played out before the first two halvings. In each case, LTC bottomed out months beforehand, rallied and then dropped back a bit into the event. (Check the Daily Signal)

If history holds true, that means litecoin could find a bottom any time now.

Nakamoto Inc. (NAKA) Closes Last Healthcare Clinic, Completes Full Pivot To Bitcoin

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Nakamoto Inc. (NAKA) Closes Last Healthcare Clinic, Completes Full Pivot To Bitcoin

Nakamoto Inc. (Nasdaq: NAKA) shut down its last legacy healthcare clinics on June 19, 2026, completing a pivot that transforms the Nashville-based company into a pure-play Bitcoin operating business with no remaining ties to the healthcare sector that once defined it.

The move has been in the works for months. Nakamoto has steadily built out three core verticals — media and information services, asset management and financial services, and consulting and advisory services — all structured to generate recurring revenue independent of Bitcoin’s price. 

Remaining administrative tasks from the healthcare wind-down are expected to close out by the end of Q3 2026.

Chairman and CEO David Bailey called it a clean break. “With our healthcare clinics now closed, Nakamoto continues to be focused on executing its strategy as a Bitcoin operating company,” Bailey said in a statement Monday. “We are now entirely focused on scaling those businesses and building durable long-term value for our shareholders.”

The media vertical is the most visible piece of the platform. Through subsidiary BTC Inc., the company controls Bitcoin Magazine, The Bitcoin Conference, and the Bitcoin for Corporations program — a suite of properties that gives the company a reach into institutional and retail Bitcoin communities that rivals cannot replicate.

The asset management arm, UTXO Management, handles public and private market investments across the Bitcoin ecosystem. The advisory practice targets corporate clients seeking Bitcoin strategy and market intelligence. 

All three businesses are designed to generate cash without relying on BTC treasury appreciation — a structural distinction that separates Nakamoto from simple Bitcoin holding companies.

Nakamoto’s transition into a pure-bitcoin play

The transition has not been without cost. In March 2026, Nakamoto sold 284 BTC, booking a $166.2 million fair-value loss for fiscal year 2025. 

In June, the company sold roughly 600 BTC and Bitcoin derivatives to repay a debt obligation to Kraken, pushing the remaining loan maturities to 2027. Nakamoto ended that transaction holding approximately 4,467 BTC on its balance sheet.

The healthcare clinic’s roots trace back to KindlyMD, Inc. (then trading as KDLY), a Salt Lake City-based healthcare provider founded in 2019 as the Utah Therapeutic Health Center, focused on holistic pain management and opioid-alternative care. 

On May 12, 2025, KindlyMD entered into a definitive merger agreement with Nakamoto. The deal was backed by over $710 million in financing, including approximately $540 million in a PIPE raise and $200 million in convertible notes, attracting more than 200 investors across six continents. 

KindlyMD shareholders approved the transaction by written consent on May 18, 2025, and the merger closed on August 14, 2025. 

Nakamoto became a wholly-owned subsidiary and the combined company rebranded as Nakamoto Inc. in January 2026 — trading on Nasdaq under the ticker NAKA.

Bitcoin Magazine is published by BTC Inc, a subsidiary of Nakamoto Inc. (NASDAQ: NAKA)

Law Enforcement, Catholics Warn Against CLARITY Act

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Law Enforcement, Catholics Warn Against CLARITY Act

A group of law enforcement organizations and a coalition of Catholic organizations have become the latest two groups urging caution over the US CLARITY Act, which is heading for a key hearing in July.  

In letters sent Tuesday, four law enforcement organizations reached out to White House officials with concerns that the CLARITY Act could create oversight gaps when it comes to illicit activity. 

“Regulatory certainty should not come at the expense of accountability, transparency, victim protection, or public safety,” they said. The Alliance to End Human Trafficking, founded by US Catholic Sisters, said these oversights could make it harder to crack down on human trafficking. 

The CLARITY Act, which is set for a House hearing on July 17, aims to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets but has garnered a number of critics. It cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May, with most Democrats voting against it, while the banking industry has also pushed back, arguing the bill would allow crypto firms to offer stablecoin yields without facing the same requirements as traditional financial institutions.

The law enforcement group includes 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.

In the letter addressed to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and White House digital assets adviser Patrick Witt, the group said it was concerned with the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, or Section 604 of the legislation, which it claims would create oversight gaps, hinder illicit-activity probes and weaken Know-Your-Customer and Anti-Money-Laundering requirements compared with traditional finance.

Section 604 of the market structure bill addresses the regulatory framework for digital asset service providers and seeks to protect non-controlling developers, open-source contributors, self-custody tools and certain DeFi infrastructure from being automatically classified as money transmitters.

The letter said there was no concern with individuals who write or publish software code or with responsible technological innovation, but with exemptions on crypto transactions that may affect law enforcement’s ability to investigate. 

“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.”

However, Lindsay Fraser, chief policy officer at the Blockchain Association, said the letter showed a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the CLARITY Act. 

“Section 604 does one narrow thing,” she said. “It prevents non-custodial software developers from being misclassified as money transmitters when they do not custody assets or control transactions.”

“It does not immunize criminals. It does not limit sanctions enforcement. It does not stop prosecutions for money laundering, fraud, or terrorist financing.”

Anti-trafficking advocates push back

Meanwhile, the Alliance to End Human Trafficking sent a similar letter Tuesday to Senate Republican Leader John Thune and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, also flagging Section 604 but from a human rights abuse perspective. 

Related: Crypto isn’t the problem with the US economy, says senator

Certain provisions under Section 604 could create “broad carveouts and regulatory ambiguities” that may make it “more difficult to responsibly monitor illicit financial activity tied to trafficking, organized crime, child exploitation, sanctions evasion and other forms of abuse,” it said. 

“The test of any financial system is not simply whether it generates wealth or innovation, but whether it safeguards human life and dignity.”

Screenshot of June 23 AEHT letter. Source: Punchbowl News

CLARITY Act proponent Senator Cynthia Lummis took the opposite view, stating Thursday that “Regulatory ambiguity doesn’t just hurt builders. It helps criminals… The CLARITY Act closes the gaps bad actors exploit.”

“The CLARITY Act is clear: writing code is not money transmission. That distinction will matter for a generation of builders,” she added on Tuesday. 

Magazine: Japanese pension fund tips 1% in crypto, G7 urges action on NK hackers: Asia Express

Ethlabs Launches to Scale Ethereum for Institutions

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Ethlabs Launches to Scale Ethereum for Institutions

Former Ethereum Foundation contributors and Ether treasury firms Bitmine and Sharplink have backed a new research and development nonprofit that aims to make Ethereum ready for institutional use.

Sharplink said on Monday that the organization, Ethlabs, was formed to “ready Ethereum for the next phase of institutional adoption,” with the company pitching in with Bitmine, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin and other Ethereum contributors on its funding effort.

“As stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds and autonomous AI commerce move on-chain, they are converging on Ethereum as the neutral, credibly permissionless settlement layer for the global economy,” Sharplink said. “Ethlabs exists to ensure the network is ready to absorb that demand at scale.”

The launch comes days after former Ethereum Foundation contributor Trenton Van Epps warned that Ethereum is facing a core development funding crisis and amid an ongoing wave of departures from the Foundation, most recently co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang, who left last week.

Source: Ethlabs

Sharplink’s announcement said Ethlabs brings together “technologists who have guided the network through its most consequential upgrades over the past decade. This initiative gives that work a dedicated institutional home with stable, long-term funding.”

Ethlabs was co-founded by five former senior Ethereum Foundation researchers: Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf and Julian Ma.

Related: Ethereum bull David Hoffman explains why he sold his ETH

Lubin said in a statement that Ethereum “is entering its next stage of evolution” and that there should be “a number of steward nodes of Ethereum” that should work to grow the utilization of the blockchain.

“By providing a long-term, independent home to researchers and developers advancing Ethereum’s core technology and values, Ethlabs will be instrumental in preparing the network for the next major wave of adoption,” he added.

Ethereum Foundation crisis deepens 

In May, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation’s resources were limited, noting that the organization only held about 0.16% of the total supply of Ether (ETH).

Former EF contributor Trenton Van Epps warned last week that Ethereum risks entering a “slow-burning funding crisis,” amid continued selling of the asset by the Foundation. 

“The EF is intentionally leaving a power vacuum for new structures to step up and influence the direction of Ethereum,” said Ethereum educator David Hoffman. “I think the Ethlabs direction holds the brightest future for Ethereum.”

Ether is trading 65% down from its peak at around $1,700, levels last seen in October 2023 and April 2025, as sentiment remains at crypto winter lows.

Magazine: Bitcoin decouples from tech stocks, Ether eyes ‘selling wave’: Market Moves

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