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The Clarity Act isn’t a ticket to sanctions evasion, actually

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The Clarity Act isn’t a ticket to sanctions evasion, actually

Ironically, some critics of the bill have pointed to recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal on the Hong Kong exchange CoinEx as evidence of the risk. CoinEx is actually a story of how to use a public ledger to track, trace, and disrupt nation state activity.

Investigators traced roughly 3.84 billion dollars in transactions tied to Iran, connecting wallets controlled by Iran’s central bank to sanctioned military networks and to funds stolen separately by North Korean hackers. That level of detail is knowable today because it happened on a public blockchain, the same visibility critics are treating as the risk.

What the Clarity Act actually contains

Clarity contains nearly twenty distinct provisions addressing anti-money laundering, sanctions, and law enforcement authority.

As the bill is currently drafted, digital asset service providers get brought fully under the Bank Secrecy Act for the first time, with risk assessments, internal controls, a compliance officer, training, audits, and suspicious activity reporting all required.

Real-time information sharing between exchanges and law enforcement gets written into statute as recognized practice — the Beacon Network model of real time interdiction, seizure and disruption — replacing voluntary industry coordination with a legal standard.

An independent working group gets tasked with developing AI-powered tools to detect and disrupt terrorist financing and money laundering in digital asset markets. Kiosk operators face wallet pinning, hold periods, and daily transaction caps for first-time users, paired with blockchain intelligence requirements to catch scammers before funds leave the platform.

Dragonfly Pushes Back on DeFi AI ‘Hackpocalypse’ Fears

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Dragonfly Pushes Back on DeFi AI ‘Hackpocalypse’ Fears

Fears that artificial intelligence would trigger a wave of catastrophic decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks in what was coined as a “hackpocalypse” have not materialized, according to Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi.

While the incident count grew to a record high, the median size of hacks has dipped below $500,000 this year, down from over $2 million in 2025. Qureshi argued that this shows malicious actors using AI are targeting “small protocols and abandonware” while larger DeFi protocols have fortified themselves against AI’s threat.

Excluding outlier months with large incidents, such as the Bybit hack in February 2025 along with the Drift Protocol and KelpDAO exploits in April of this year, 2026 has still seen less value hacked per month than the previous year, said Qureshi.

The comments come in response to concerns shared by blockchain security platform OpenZeppelin’s founder, Manuel Aráoz, who said that he considers “all of DeFi unsafe,” citing the growing ability of AI coding agents to identify smart contract vulnerabilities. 

Broader industry datasets, which include centralized platforms, wallet compromises and phishing, as well as DeFi exploits, offer a less reassuring picture. In April, crypto hacks surged, resulting in losses of around $644 million, marking an over one-year high last seen in February 2025 when the $1.4 billion Bybit hack pushed monthly losses to $1.46 billion, according to DefiLlama.

Source: Haseeb

Crypto hacks fall 47% in H1, but crypto industry not necessarily safer: CertiK

Losses to cryptocurrency hacks fell 46.8% year-on-year to $1.32 billion in the first half of 2026, but blockchain security company CertiK argued that the Web3 industry’s lower headline losses do not necessarily mean the industry is safer.

Related: Belgian police arrest suspected phishing gang leader tied to $572K theft

While it marks a significant drop in dollar value, last year’s figures were skewed by the $1.4 billion Bybit hack, the largest in crypto history, CertiK told Cointelegraph.

During the second quarter of 2026, over 70% of the losses stemmed from the KelpDAO and Drift Protocol exploits, which were largely attributed to North Korean state-sponsored hackers.

Monthly change in crypto exploit amounts and number of incidents across H1. Source: CertiK 

The data underscores the continued threat that North Korean hackers pose to the crypto industry, having stolen more than $6 billion worth of crypto since 2017, TRM Labs estimated in April. 

Magazine: Does Botanix’s failure prove Bitcoiners don’t care about DeFi?

Binance bets on becoming a crypto ‘super app’ as stablecoins reshape growth

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Binance bets on becoming a crypto ‘super app’ as stablecoins reshape growth

Binance believes its next phase of growth will come from payments and financial services rather than cryptocurrency trading alone, as stablecoins reshape how people use digital assets, according to Shunyet Jan, the exchange’s head of spot trading and derivatives business.

In an interview with CoinDesk on Binance’s ninth anniversary, Jan outlined the strategy as Binance and shared a glimpse of the platform’s future priorities.

“We’re trying to not just be a crypto exchange, but be a super app that involves payment,” Jan said. “If you think of us as a payment provider, then that number becomes much bigger.”

Jan said Binance’s new strategy reflects how people are increasingly using cryptocurrencies beyond trading. While trading remains at the core of Binance’s business, he said stablecoins are increasingly being used for payments and transfers, creating a larger market than trading alone.

“I don’t think it’s really leveled off,” Jan said. “What’s happened is that a lot of it is driven by stablecoin usage.”

CleanSpark Signs $6.6 Billion Data Center Lease As Bitcoin Miner Pivots To Compute

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CleanSpark Signs $6.6 Billion Data Center Lease As Bitcoin Miner Pivots To Compute

CleanSpark, the Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miner, said on July 14 that it has signed a 20-year infrastructure lease with an unnamed high-investment-grade global technology company at its campus in Sandersville, Georgia. 

The deal marks the firm’s largest step from pure bitcoin mining toward high-performance computing for hyperscale clients.

The lease covers data center infrastructure that will support 175 megawatts of critical IT load. CleanSpark expects the initial term to generate $6.6 billion in contracted revenue, a figure that would climb to $11.6 billion if the tenant exercises both extension options. 

The company has recently announced that it would repurpose part of its electricity capacity and mining infrastructure to power AI data centers, aiming to diversify beyond bitcoin mining. 

CleanSparks’ average annual net operating income from the agreement should reach $330 million. First deliveries are due in the fourth quarter of 2027.

In a further sign of the tenant’s appetite, the two sides executed a letter of intent and an exclusivity arrangement covering CleanSpark’s entire Texas portfolio, a base of up to 885 megawatts of secured and planned power capacity. Should that convert into firm contracts, CleanSpark’s transition into an infrastructure landlord for artificial-intelligence and cloud workloads would deepen.

CleanSpark holds 13,924 bitcoin

The announcement lands as CleanSpark’s core mining business posts records. The company produced 614 bitcoin in early July and lifted its operational hashrate to 50 exahashes per second, a company high. 

Treasury holdings rose to 13,924 bitcoin, one of the larger corporate stashes among public miners. Management has kept much of its mined bitcoin rather than sell into the market, a bet on the asset’s long-term price.

Wall Street has warmed to the compute pivot. Citizens began coverage with an Outperform rating and a $27 price target, citing the shift toward hyperscale compute capacity. Chardan lifted its target to $19 from $16 and kept a Buy rating. Both notes framed the Sandersville lease as proof that CleanSpark can monetize its power and land assets beyond mining, where margins swing with bitcoin’s price and network difficulty.

Investor reaction has been mixed. Shares of CleanSpark gained more than 20% in pre-market on the news but have since dropped to 9% gains on the day. 

The Georgia lease offers somewhat of a hedge. Contracted rent from a creditworthy tenant provides a revenue stream that does not rise and fall with hash prices, while the company keeps its mining fleet and bitcoin treasury intact. 

The next test is execution: bringing 175 megawatts online before the close of 2027 and turning the Texas letter of intent into signed leases.

ABA, Banking Associations Push Back Against CLARITY Act Yield Provisions

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ABA, Banking Associations Push Back Against CLARITY Act Yield Provisions

A wide swath of the US banking industry is urging Senate leaders to amend the stablecoin yield provisions of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) now under consideration. 

The American Bankers Association (ABA), the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and 76 other state banking associations sent a joint letter to Senate leaders that claimed that the current language on stablecoin interest, yield and rewards is too ambiguous and argued that new amendments need to prevent payment stablecoins from acting as deposit substitutes rather than pure transaction tools.

The joint letter, which showed support for the broader bill, said the ABA is concerned that ambiguities within the bill “could encourage stablecoin arrangements to effectively function as substitutes for deposits, despite Congress’ longstanding and clearly stated intent that payment stablecoins should serve as transaction tools rather than store-of-value products,” according to a press release published on Monday.

This marks the latest pushback from the US banking industry against the act’s stablecoin yield provisions and comes just days ahead of the bill’s scheduled House of Representatives hearing on Friday. The bill aims to establish the first regulatory framework for digital assets in the US.

The banking groups said that the current draft poses the risk of a “deposit flight,” urging lawmakers to revise section 404 to “clarify the prohibition on interest and yield and help ensure that the prohibition cannot be circumvented through alternative incentive structures.” 

The pushback reinforces Galaxy Digital’s prediction that the Senate is running out of time to pass the bill before the end of the year, due to a looming Senate recess and other congressional priorities. Galaxy Digital cut its odds of the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 to 50% on June 26, citing the lack of a unified Senate Banking-Agriculture text, no firm floor schedule and a narrowing legislative window before lawmakers leave Washington.

ABA, ICBA join state associations in urging Senate to strengthen stablecoin yield provisions in Clarity Act. Source: ABA.com

Bankers, Dems push back against stablecoin yield elements

The CLARITY Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May, but met pushback from Democrats and the banking industry, who argued that it would allow crypto firms to offer yields on stablecoins without facing the same requirements as traditional banks. 

In a May interview, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that the banking industry would continue to “fight” against the current version of the CLARITY Act and said that crypto companies wanting to pay yield on stablecoins should apply for banking charters.

Related: A16z’s Andreessen lands Federal Reserve role as AI reshapes policy debate

Meanwhile, the CLARITY Act secured its second public endorsement from a major US law enforcement organization on Friday, when the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) said it submitted a letter to the US Senate Banking Committee endorsing the CLARITY Act, while calling for strengthening accountability in decentralized finance (DeFi) and for preserving the investigators’ existing powers.

At the beginning of June, more than 200 crypto companies and related organizations urged the US Senate to pass the CLARITY Act in a letter shared by crypto lobby group Stand With Crypto.

Magazine: From Bitcoin critics to blockchain believers: The 5 biggest crypto backflips

Humanity Protocol to Prioritize Operational Security following $36M Hack

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Humanity Protocol to Prioritize Operational Security following $36M Hack

Humanity Protocol will refocus its cybersecurity efforts on operational security following a June $36 million exploit that was traced back to a compromised employee laptop, according to the founder of the decentralized identity company, Terence Kwok.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Kwok said that the exploit stemmed from last year’s mainnet launch, when several production keys were inadvertently backed up onto the laptop that was compromised, including admin hot wallet keys and a quorum of multisig owner keys across both chains.  He said:

“The hard lesson here is that operational security is as critical as smart-contract security, and we’re rebuilding accordingly.”

The exploit and Humanity Protocol’s action highlight an increase in cryptocurrency hackers refocusing their attacks on staff-level vulnerabilities and operational shortcomings, rather than exploiting smart contract code.

Humanity Protocol was exploited last month, when a compromised employee’s laptop enabled attackers to steal $36 million in Humanity (H) tokens. The token’s current market cap is roughly $211 million, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Blockchain security company Quantstamp said that the malicious attachment that was delivered through a phishing email pointed to the involvement of North Korea-linked threat actors. The malicious attachment was disguised as a token lockup schedule update from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb and installed malware, giving attackers remote access to the machine.

The phishing email that led to the Humanity Protocol compromise.
Source: Quantstamp

North Korea-linked threat actors were tied to at least $578 million of the $634 million stolen in crypto-related incidents in April alone. 

Related: AI has not triggered DeFi ‘hackpocalypse,’ Dragonfly partner says

Phishing and wallet compromises lead attack vectors in H1 2026

The Humanity Protocol exploit occurred during a resurgence of cryptocurrency exploits that stemmed from operational failures and social engineering schemes.

Phishing drove the majority of the first quarter losses for a total of $508 million, while wallet compromises emerged as the biggest attack vector in the second quarter, contributing $807 million in losses, according to blockchain security company CertiK.

Monthly change in crypto exploit amounts and number of incidents across H1. Source: CertiK 

To be sure, crypto losses to hacks fell 46.8% year-on-year to $1.32 billion in the first half of 2026, but CertiK said that the drop was misleading due to the $1.4 billion Bybit hack in early 2025 and stressed that North Korean malicious actors continue threatening the crypto industry.

During the second quarter of 2026, more than 70% of the losses stemmed from the Drift Protocol and KelpDAO exploits, which were also widely attributed to North Korean state-sponsored hackers.

Magazine: Does Botanix’s failure prove Bitcoiners don’t care about DeFi? 

Mizuho turns bearish on stablecoin issuer Circle, citing Open USD competition

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Mizuho turns bearish on stablecoin issuer Circle, citing Open USD competition

Japanese investment bank Mizuho downgraded Circle (CRCL) to underperform from neutral and slashed its price target to $50 from $85, arguing that OpenUSD’s business model threatens the stablecoin issuer’s long-term economics.

Circle shares were trading 0.6% lower at $62.63 at publication time.

Open USD, a dollar-backed stablecoin unveiled June 30 by the Open Standard consortium, “could fundamentally alter CRCL’s business model, which relies on retaining a large portion of the treasury yield to drive revenues,” analysts led by Dan Dolev said in the Tuesday note to clients.

The consortium counts more than 140 partners, including Mastercard (MA), Stripe, Coinbase (COIN) and BlackRock (BLK).

USDC has also lost momentum in recent months, with its circulating supply falling to about $73 billion from nearly $80 billion in March. The decline comes as the stablecoin market has shrunk by roughly $10 billion since May amid softer crypto trading activity and growing competition from newly regulated issuers.

Unlike Circle’s USDC model, which captures reserve income before sharing a portion with partners such as Coinbase and Binance, Open USD charges a small operating fee and distributes most reserve income to issuers and distributors, the analysts said.

JPMorgan sees Hyperliquid partnership weighing on Circle, Coinbase

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JPMorgan sees Hyperliquid partnership weighing on Circle, Coinbase

Hyperliquid is one of crypto’s fastest-growing trading venues and the leading decentralized perpetual futures exchange. The platform processed more than $150 billion in trading volume in July alone, while its volume relative to Binance climbed to 11.5%, underscoring its growing share of the derivatives market. USDC balances on Hyperliquid have swelled to roughly $6 billion, making it an increasingly important distribution channel for the stablecoin.

Under the new arrangement, Coinbase will classify USDC on Hyperliquid as “on-platform,” collecting the income generated by reserves and paying 90% of it to Hyperliquid. JPMorgan estimated Coinbase previously split nearly all of the revenue evenly with Circle.

The bank cut earnings estimates for both companies, citing the Hyperliquid agreement and weaker crypto markets, though it expects higher interest rates to provide some support for USDC-related revenue over the longer term.

USDC has also lost momentum in recent months. Its circulating supply has fallen to about $73 billion from nearly $80 billion in March, part of a broader $10 billion contraction in the stablecoin market since May as crypto trading activity cooled and new regulated rivals chipped away at the dominance of USDC and Tether’s USDT.

Japanese investment bank Mizuho said in a report last week that Circle’s final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish First National Digital Currency Bank is a positive milestone, but investors may be overestimating its significance.

Bitcoin Trader Warns of ‘Lower High’ as $64,000 Returns on US CPI Drop

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Bitcoin Trader Warns of ‘Lower High’ as $64,000 Returns on US CPI Drop

Bitcoin (BTC) spiked past $64,000 into Tuesday’s Wall Street open as US inflation saw a surprise sudden downturn.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin returns to near the top of its local trading range on US inflation data.
  • The biggest drop in CPI since April 2020 boosts crypto and risk assets.
  • Traders remain in wait-and-see mode over whether local resistance will break.

US CPI ignores Iran pressure with snap drop

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD gaining more than 2% on the day as the June print of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in below expectations.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

At 3.5% versus the anticipated 3.8%, CPI posted its largest monthly decline since April 2020, per data from US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Energy led the drop despite headwinds from the US-Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz oil route.

“The index for energy fell 5.7 percent in June after rising 3.9 percent in May, 3.8 percent in April, and 10.9 percent in March,” an official news release stated. 

“The energy index was the largest contributor to the monthly all items decrease, more than offsetting increases in other indexes including those for shelter and food.”

US CPI 12-month % change. Source: BLS

Risk assets reacted positively, with US stocks in the green and crypto showing particular relief.

Market expectations of future Federal Reserve financial policy changes also turned dovish, with the odds of interest-rate hikes dropping sharply. The latest data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool nonetheless maintained consensus for a 0.25% hike at the Fed’s September meeting.

Fed target rate probabilities (screenshot). Source: CME Group

“This print should help temper what had become an excessively hawkish market tilt to the monetary policy outlook,” economist Mohamed El-Erian wrote in a response on X.

Trader warns of BTC price rejection

Bitcoin traders remained cautious with local resistance above $64,000 still in place.

Related: Bitcoin bear market will bottom when two-month RSI metric hits zero, trader predicts 

In ongoing market analysis, X commentator Exitpump noted short positions getting “squeezed” as a result of the CPI print.

“Sellers haven’t been able to push price lower because of strong passive demand and now seeing shorts closing out slowly forcing price to grind up,” it summarized. 

“Still a range trading environment.”

BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Exitpump/X

The latest data from CoinGlass put 24-hour crypto short liquidations at just over $220 million.

BTC/USD vs. crypto liquidations (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

Continuing, trader Killa said that they would eye “signs of exhaustion” should the BTC price take out the local highs.

“There’s still a liquidity pool sitting above 64.8K, but right now we’re testing the weekly open. If we can’t reclaim and hold the weekly open, this is likely just a lower high before we move down to test the $60K region,” an X post read.

ECB picks 36 firms including Deutsche Bank and Revolut for CBDC pilot

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ECB picks 36 firms including Deutsche Bank and Revolut for CBDC pilot

The European Central Bank (ECB) selected 36 banks and payment firms to join a pilot of the digital euro starting in the second half of next year as it prepares the central bank digital currency (CBDC) for potential issuance in 2029.

The group, selected from among 50 applicants, includes Adyen, Deutsche Bank, Revolut, SumUp, UniCredit and Worldline, the ECB said on its website.

While legislation enabling the currency has yet to be finalized, the central bank is pushing forward with the project because it sees adoption of private dollar-backed stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle Internet’s USDC as a threat to Europe’s monetary autonomy.

The 12-month pilot will test a beta version of the digital euro across the ECB and 19 euro-area national central banks. It will cover online and offline transfers between individuals, in-store payments and e-commerce purchases.

Although it won’t have legal status, the currency will be close to the design set out in draft European Union legislation. The ECB’s staff, along with employees of national central banks, will act as consumers. Selected restaurants, cafeterias and online merchants will accept payments during the pilot.

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