CLARITY Act Text Lands, Ethics Fight Begins

Here are the biggest news in crypto and DeFi:

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!

PARTNER

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WATCH [PARTNER]

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.

The Aid Payments Rail Reaching 625,000 Afghan Refugees▶ Watch the interview on X 𝕏

REGULATION

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."

Crypto Industry Pushes for Senate Vote on New CLARITY Act Text as Democrats Blast Ethics PlanCrypto executives and policy groups called on the Senate to move quickly after Senate Republicans released updated text of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on July 22, while key Democrats attacked the draft's approach to policing crypto conflicts of interest among government officials.thedefiant.io

Why this matters: The ethics provision is the 60-vote fault line. The rest of the bill has support; whether a workable conflict rule can be written decides if it passes this session or slips.

PARTNER

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HACKS

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.

Why this matters: It is the third eight-figure bridge or vault exploit in a week. The value-transfer layer keeps proving the softest target, even as the underlying chains hold up.

DEFI

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.

Why this matters: A three-week-old chain outrunning Coinbase's L2 on activity is a real distribution story. That it runs on memecoins is the asterisk on whether the lead sticks.

TRADFI AND FINTECH

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.

Why this matters: The week's records show onchain equities scaling on multiple fronts at once, well beyond a single venue's spike. The trend is broadening from novelty toward a real market.

TRADFI AND FINTECH

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.

Why this matters: A major asset manager is pitching tokens as the settlement layer for AI agents. It casts altcoins as infrastructure for machine payments, a use case beyond speculation.