CLARITY Act Text Lands, Ethics Fight Begins
Plus, an attacker drains $24M from the AFX bridge
Here are the biggest news in crypto and DeFi:
- The crypto industry pushes for a Senate vote on the new CLARITY Act text
- An attacker drains ~$24M in USDC from the AFX bridge on Arbitrum
- Robinhood Chain overtakes Base on daily active users
- Tokenized stocks hit records across every major venue
- Franklin Templeton says altcoins are key to the agentic-AI trade
The crypto market-structure bill finally has text. Now the fight is over one provision — how hard to police government officials' crypto conflicts — and it is the piece that decides whether the bill clears the Senate.
Senate Republicans released the 616-page merged CLARITY Act draft, and Coinbase, the Blockchain Association, and the DeFi Education Fund urged a quick vote before the August recess. Key Democrats pushed back hard: Sen. Angela Alsobrooks called the draft's DOJ-led ethics enforcement "wild and unserious and stone-cold crazy."
The ethics provision is the whole ballgame. Everything else in the bill has broad support; whether a workable conflict-of-interest regime can be written is what determines if market structure gets 60 votes this session or slips past the recess into the fall.
Read more below!
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The Aid Payments Rail Reaching 625,000 Afghan Refugees
At the Algorand Humanitarian Aid Payments Council, one number stood out: 625,000+ Afghan refugee returnees have received UNHCR aid through HesabPay, with $35M disbursed. Matt Keller and Nigel Pont break down how stablecoin rails reach people banks can't.
Crypto Industry Pushes for Senate Vote on New CLARITY Act Text as Democrats Blast Ethics Plan
Senate Republicans released the 616-page merged text of the CLARITY Act, and Coinbase, the Blockchain Association, and the DeFi Education Fund urged a Senate vote before the August recess. Key Democrats attacked the draft's DOJ-led approach to policing officials' crypto conflicts — Sen. Angela Alsobrooks called it "wild and unserious and stone-cold crazy."
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Attacker Drains $24M in USDC From AFX Bridge on Arbitrum
An attacker drained roughly $24.15 million in USDC from a bridge operated by derivatives exchange AFX on Arbitrum, emptying nearly all the USDC locked in the contract, per security firm Blockaid. Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder said Arbitrum's native bridge was not affected.
Robinhood Chain Overtakes Base on Daily Active Users Three Weeks After Launch
Robinhood Chain overtook Base on daily active users on July 21, posting 323,969 to Base's 274,520 and a record $588.9 million in TVL — three weeks after mainnet. Memecoins drive most of the volume, well ahead of the tokenized stocks the chain was built for.
Tokenized Stocks Hit Records Across Every Major Venue as Sector Reaches $2.3B
The tokenized-stock market hit a record $2.3 billion, nearly doubling since March, with Ondo, Backed Finance, and Robinhood Chain all setting all-time highs and dYdX's new Arcus exchange posting record perps volume, per Token Terminal.
Franklin Templeton Says Altcoins Are Key to the Agentic AI Trade
Franklin Templeton's digital-assets head Sandy Kaul argues investors need altcoins alongside AI stocks to capture the agentic-AI trade, saying card rails can't handle the $0.001 machine-to-machine payments that AI agents will make.
Other Stories Worth Your Time
Ramp Adds Stablecoin Accounts and Bill Pay on Stripe Stack — the fintech launched stablecoin accounts and stablecoin Bill Pay in USDC and USDT, powered by Stripe, Bridge, and Privy — Bridge converts dollars for payouts while Privy stores balances — with up to 3.25% rewards and no New York availability.
Ostium to Reopen Trading July 23 After $23.8M Vault Exploit — the perps exchange said trading reopens July 23 at 10 a.m. ET after the July 15 exploit drained 23.75M USDC from its liquidity-provider vault; positions carry over marked to the live price, and new OLP deposits stay paused during recovery.
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