1. Trump Agrees to Ethics Provisions for CLARITY Act; Senate to Release Bill Text as Early as This Week link
U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to the ethics provisions contained in the CLARITY Act, clearing the last major hurdle for the crypto market structure bill to advance to a Senate vote. The provisions seek to bar the president, vice president, members of Congress and other federal officials from profiting from digital assets while in office. The full bill text is expected to be released in the coming days, and the Senate must hold a vote no later than the first week of August. Should it pass, the bill will be sent back to the House of Representatives for review before being submitted to the president for signature.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune stated that the CLARITY Act, the crypto market structure legislation, is unlikely to complete voting before Congress’s summer recess, though he still hopes to launch Senate deliberations ahead of the break. Disagreements persist over clauses governing federal officials’ crypto activities and stablecoin yields. If consideration is delayed until the brief legislative session before midterm elections in September, the odds of passage within 2026 will rise substantially.
Chris Dixon, partner at a16z, posted urging the U.S. Congress to enact the CLARITY Act to clarify regulatory divisions for blockchain networks and the digital asset market, alongside introducing rules for customer asset segregation, custody and disclosure. He noted the GENIUS Act has fueled expansion in the stablecoin sector, yet blockchain infrastructure still lacks a unified federal framework. If the CLARITY Act passes, the United States will once again lead the future just as it did with the commercial internet. Continued delays by the U.S. risk shifting innovation and rulemaking authority to other jurisdictions.
2. London Stock Exchange Plans Night Trading Platform Launch in 2027 to Compete With Crypto Venues link
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) plans to launch a standalone overnight trading platform in the first half of 2027. It will initially offer trading in exchange-traded products (ETPs), including funds tracking UK and US equity markets. The new platform’s trading hours are set from 17:00 to 07:50 the following day, with a 30-minute suspension built in for end-of-day processing. Reports state the move comes as traditional exchanges seek to win back retail investors drawn to round-the-clock crypto trading venues. Crypto platforms such as Coinbase and Kraken already offer 24/7 stock trading services. LSE CEO Julia Hoggett noted retail investors in Asia are expected to particularly benefit from the arrangement. In addition, the LSE intends to introduce trading capabilities powered by agentic AI on the new platform.
3. Argentina Proposes Capital Market Reform, Allowing Mutual Funds to Invest in Bitcoin & Crypto Assets link
Argentina’s government plans to allow mutual investment funds to allocate to Bitcoin and other crypto assets subject to their respective investment policies, and is considering permitting digital assets to be used as collateral for regulated loans. The draft also seeks to explicitly authorize the issuance, custody and trading of securities such as stocks and bonds on blockchains. The proposal is not yet finalized; it still requires presidential endorsement before being submitted to Congress for deliberation.
4. Brazil Tokenizes Cattle for the First Time as Collateral to Support Agricultural Financing link
Brazilian farm Fazenda Engenho Velho completed the first formally registered tokenized livestock asset collateral financing transaction on B3, the Brazilian Stock Exchange. The farm secured CPR-F agricultural credit certificates worth 100,000 Brazilian reals (approximately $19,400) using 10 cows as collateral. Health, behavioral and location data for each cow are collected via Cowmed AI smart collars, generating unique encrypted digital IDs linked to loan contracts to enable digital management of collateralized assets. The model aims to reduce valuation haircuts and manual verification costs inherent to traditional livestock-backed financing. Cowmed stated its system currently covers roughly 100,000 cows across Brazil and other nations, and plans to facilitate around 20 percent of these livestock as tokenized collateral assets within the next two years.
5. Strategy Launches Bitcoin Security Consortium, Committing $15M Funding Over Three Years link
Strategy announced the launch of the Bitcoin Security Consortium. Founding members include BlackRock, Coinbase, Galaxy, Anchorage, ARK Invest, Blockstream, Block and Digital Asset. Participants commit to investing $15 million over the next three years to support Bitcoin developers and security research. The consortium stated its initial priority is the potential impact of quantum computing on Bitcoin cryptography. It emphasized that the group will not steer Bitcoin development, but will back the long-term work of existing open-source developers and researchers.
6. Kraken Parent to Expand xStocks, Aiming to List Hong Kong, UK & South Korean Equities link
Payward, parent company of Kraken, is partnering with investment infrastructure provider GTN to bring Hong Kong-listed stocks to xStocks. Stocks from the United Kingdom, Europe and South Korea are slated to follow, pending regulatory approvals. GTN will deliver execution, custody and record-keeping services for the securities backing these tokens.
7. Veteran Exchange BitMEX Announces Closure; Long-Drawn Sale Process Failed link
On July 23, veteran crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX announced it would officially shut down at 04:00 UTC on September 23 and has suspended new user registrations. Founded by Arthur Hayes, BitMEX pioneered perpetual swap contracts. Starting August 26, BitMEX will block new position openings and conduct progressive forced liquidations. Following crackdowns by U.S. authorities, Arthur Hayes gradually stepped back from BitMEX operations. Its market share was overtaken by offshore rivals including Binance and Bybit. The platform had been pursuing acquisition talks over the past several years without reaching a deal.
After BitMEX announced its closure, Ben Zhou, Co-Founder and CEO of Bybit, posted that BitMEX invented perpetual swaps and once stood as the world’s largest crypto exchange, inspiring subsequent platforms such as Bybit. He noted that though BitMEX later faced regulatory headwinds, perpetual swaps have endured as a core crypto product and are gradually gaining regulatory acceptance across jurisdictions including the EU, Dubai and Hong Kong. He paid tribute to BitMEX founding members Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Sam Reed.
CZ commented that BitMEX launched 100x leveraged Bitcoin perpetual swaps back in 2014. Its early constraints — only Bitcoin deposits, a single blockchain network, and once-daily multisig withdrawals — seemingly inconvenient safeguards that shielded the platform from hacks. The four founders fought legal action for 18 months before pleading guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations one month ahead of trial. Each paid a $10 million fine and served home confinement with no prison time. Still, the business failed to survive the crypto crackdown during the Biden administration. CZ added the ongoing wind-down proceeds in orderly fashion with users able to withdraw assets, and extended respect to Arthur Hayes.
Arthur Hayes published a farewell message to BitMEX: “Thank you to our partners, BitMEX staff, and most importantly our customers. It has been an incredible journey. Together we built something special. I am immensely proud of everything we created and that we are able to wind down responsibly on our own terms. Satoshi Nakamoto forever.”
BKX Services and David Namdar have filed a lawsuit against BitMEX in the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs allege BitMEX profited by leveraging internal trading privileges, account freezes and forced liquidation mechanisms, resulting in combined losses of 622.66 BTC for the two claimants. They demand restitution of the Bitcoin plus damages, and BitMEX has not issued a response. The lawsuit was filed on the same day BitMEX announced the end of its 11-year operation.
8. 17 Major Crypto Projects & Firms Shut Down or Filed Bankruptcy Since Start of 2026 link
Data from CryptoRank shows that 17 major crypto projects and firms have shut down or filed for bankruptcy since the start of 2026, including BitMEX, Loopring DEX, Nifty Gateway, Movement Labs, Bitcoin Depot and ZeroLend. Collectively, these entities raised at least $8.9 billion in disclosed funding in prior rounds. CryptoRank stated that besides insolvent businesses, products unable to retain users and liquidity are also exiting the market.
9. Monthly RWA Perpetual Volume Rises to $470B; Tokenized Equities Lead Growth link
Monthly trading volume for tokenized real-world asset (RWA) perpetual contracts jumped from $85 billion in January to roughly $470 billion in June, marking a 450% surge across six months. Trading volume of tokenized equity perpetuals expanded approximately sevenfold, outpacing tokenized commodities. SpaceX (SPCX) recorded over $66 billion in trading volume in June, making it the most actively traded single-stock perpetual contract across exchanges. Binance, Hyperliquid and OKX collectively captured more than 80% of tokenized RWA perpetual trading volume in June, with Binance accounting for nearly half of the total.
10. Ethereum Validator Exit Queue Hits Zero; Around 2.48M ETH Awaiting Staking Activation link
Citing data from beaconcha.in, Arkham reports that Ethereum’s validator exit queue has fallen to zero, meaning unstaking requires no waiting time. Meanwhile, around 2.48 million ETH is queued to enter staking, with an estimated waiting period of 43 days. The exit queue previously topped 2.6 million ETH in September 2025. At present, roughly 40.9 million ETH is staked, accounting for approximately 33.55% of the total supply. There are about 885,000 active validators, delivering an average annualized yield of 2.64%.
Fundraising
AI security firm Neo announced it has secured $100 million in funding. link
Crypto bank Augustus completed a $180 million Series B financing at a $1 billion valuation. link
Digital Asset, developer of the Canton Network, raised an additional $10 million with its valuation unchanged at $2 billion. link
Notabene announced a strategic investment from Ripple. link
Empery Digital made a $20 million strategic investment in Cardinal Data Power. link
Mirae Asset acquired a 97.15% stake in Korbit and plans to rebrand the platform as Digital X to build an all-in-one digital asset investment platform. link
Mandela Digital secured a $5 million investment from Datavault AI. link
Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.
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