CLARITY Act Deadline Looms With Key Fights Unsettled

Washington spent the week turning the crypto market-structure bill from a promise into 616 pages of text. A reported ethics deal on Tuesday sent bitcoin back above $66,000; by Wednesday Senate Republicans had published the merged CLARITY Act draft, and Coinbase and the rest of the industry were pushing for a floor vote before the August recess. The fight now narrows to one clause — how to police officials' crypto conflicts — and that provision decides whether market structure gets 60 votes this session.

Underneath the policy win, the memecoin trade came back in force. Vlad Tenev's X account was hijacked to launch a token on Robinhood Chain, Brian Armstrong spent days insisting his avatar swaps are not trading signals, and Robinhood Chain passed Base on daily active users — on memecoin volume, well ahead of the tokenized stocks it was built for. Tokenization kept scaling too, with onchain equities hitting a record $2.3 billion.

Here's everything you need to know from last week. Enjoy!

PARTNER

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WATCH

Memecoins Eat Everything: Robinhood Chain's Accidental Casino

Austin Campbell, Michael Lee, and Jason Yanowitz joined us live to break down how memecoins took over Robinhood Chain, Brian Armstrong's avatar scandal, and whether Base pulling back from speculative use cases is the right call. Watch the replay.

Top Stories This Week

The CLARITY Act Finally Has Text — and One Fight Left

The crypto market-structure bill moved further this week than it had all year. Crypto prices climbed on Tuesday, with bitcoin reclaiming $66,000, after the White House circulated agreed-upon ethics-provision language to Senate Republicans. By Wednesday the GOP had released the 616-page merged Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, and Coinbase, the Blockchain Association, and the DeFi Education Fund pressed for a Senate vote before the August recess. Democrats attacked the draft's DOJ-led approach to policing officials' crypto conflicts, with Sen. Angela Alsobrooks calling it “wild and unserious and stone-cold crazy.” The ethics provision is the 60-vote fault line: the rest of the bill has broad support, and whether a workable conflict rule can be written decides if market structure passes this session or slips to the fall.

Memecoins Refuse to Die on Robinhood Chain

The memecoin trade returned with its fraud attached. On Thursday, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account was hijacked to promote a token called Vladhood, launched on Robinhood Chain 46 minutes before the hacked post went live; it drew more than $22 million in volume, and the creator was still claiming the pool's trading fees days later. It followed Brian Armstrong spending the start of the week telling traders his avatar swaps — which sent a ‘Coinbase Man’ token up and then down roughly 86% — are not endorsements. Robinhood Chain, meanwhile, overtook Base on daily active users three weeks after launch, running on memecoin volume, well ahead of the tokenized stocks it was pitched for.

Tokenized Stocks Hit a Record $2.3 Billion

Onchain equities kept scaling across venues. 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, per Token Terminal. The regulatory path widened alongside the volume: Ondo's broker-dealer subsidiary Oasis Pro Markets secured clearance to offer tokenized equities and funds to US investors under SEC and FINRA oversight, and Uniswap shipped Permissioned Pools, a v4 hook that checks an issuer's allowlist on every swap so regulated assets can trade on the AMM. The market is broadening from novelty into infrastructure.

Telegram Will Ship a Native Wallet to a Billion Users

Pavel Durov said Telegram will roll out a native, non-custodial Gram wallet to its more than 1 billion users this summer, putting private-key custody inside the core app with instant, zero-fee transactions. No self-custody wallet has had distribution at this scale. Shipping keys to a billion inboxes could onboard more users in a quarter than crypto has managed in years, if they opt in.

Movement Labs Files for Chapter 11

MVMT Labs, the developer behind the Movement blockchain and its MOVE token, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware, listing up to $10 million in liabilities. The filing caps a year of governance disputes, a market-making scandal, and a failed strategic pivot. A funded, high-profile L1 developer going bankrupt is a marker for the cycle's shakeout: a token launch and early hype no longer cover for a broken business underneath.

Other Stories

Attacker Drains $24M in USDC From AFX Bridge on Arbitrum — the attacker emptied nearly all the USDC locked in a bridge run by derivatives exchange AFX, per Blockaid, the third eight-figure bridge or vault exploit in a week.

SEC's Peirce Says Onchain Vaults and Lending Can Trigger Securities Laws — the SEC's friendliest crypto commissioner said actively managed vaults and lending strategies can fall under securities law, warning builders doing ‘gymnastics’ to dodge it face ‘a painful fall.’

Consensys Halted MetaMask Releases Over a North Korea-Linked Contractor — Consensys paused MetaMask releases after finding a contractor with North Korea links, hired through a third party, had worked on the code from March until access was cut in April; it says it found no stolen assets or malicious code.

S&P and Pantera Launch a Revenue-Screened Digital Asset Index — the 18-token benchmark excludes bitcoin and memecoins and screens for protocols with positive revenue verified onchain, treating tokens like cash-flowing businesses.

Morpho Launches Fixed-Rate Lending Protocol Midnight on Base — the fixed-rate, fixed-term credit protocol went live on Base with a Markets App that lets users set their own rates and terms, the shape institutions need to build on DeFi lending.

BitMEX to Shut Down Exchange on Sept. 23, Urges Withdrawals — the venue that popularized 100x perpetual swaps will close Sept. 23; owner HDR cited a strategic review, users must exit before an Aug. 26 cutover, and the BMEX token fell about 91%.

Trending on The Defiant

• Crypto Industry Pushes for Senate Vote on New CLARITY Act Text as Democrats Blast Ethics Plan
• Tokenized Stocks Hit Records Across Every Major Venue as Sector Reaches $2.3B
• Attacker Drains $24M in USDC From AFX Bridge on Arbitrum
• Movement Labs Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
• Durov Says Telegram Will Ship Native Gram Wallet to a Billion Users

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you Monday.