The crypto industry has spent much of the past two years preparing for regulatory clarity in Washington. This week, one of its top legislative priorities ran into a serious obstacle.
On Tuesday, the CLARITY Act failed to move forward in the Senate, not reaching the 60 votes required to bring the bill to the floor. This setback significantly narrows the bill’s chances of advancing this year: ahead of the midterm elections on November 3, the Senate calendar is getting tighter.
Strategists say that crypto exchanges such as Coinbase may have more at stake due to the bill’s stalled progress than most other companies.
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered is making a big bet on Arbitrum, Bitmine turns its ether reserve into a source of staking income, and Phemex’s CEO says AI has become «pure negative» for the crypto industry.
Saxo strategist: Coinbase will feel the consequences of the CLARITY Act more than others
Saxo Bank strategist Ruben Dalfovo said that Coinbase has more at stake due to the failure of the CLARITY Act, because its trading business depends directly on U.S. market-structure regulation rules.
In a note published on Wednesday after the failed procedural vote on the bill, Dalfovo said that Coinbase is especially vulnerable because new rules could determine registration requirements, assets available for trading, and the set of participants on its platform. Failure could also affect other crypto-related companies, but according to Dalfovo, their businesses depend less directly on market-structure regulation. Circle’s dependence is more closely tied to the spread of USDC and income from reserves, while Strategy relies mainly on its bitcoin assets and access to funding.
The market’s reaction reflected these concerns. After the vote, Coinbase, Circle, and Strategy shares fell 5–10% and continued declining the next day.
Standard Chartered expects Arbitrum to grow to $10 as Wall Street shifts to on-chain
Standard Chartered expects Arbitrum to outperform bitcoin and ether through 2030 as traditional finance companies shift to putting assets on-chain and the network’s economics change.
Jeff Kendrick, global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, said that Arbitrum gets 10% of the protocol’s net revenue from companies building solutions on top of it. Robinhood Chain, launched in July, significantly changed Arbitrum’s economics: revenue is expected to reach $5 million in September, more than five times the previous level. Kendrick forecasts ARB growth to $10 by 2030 — a 70-fold increase compared with the current price of about $0.14, which has risen by 86% over the past month.
Standard Chartered’s thesis is based on achieving $39 billion in tokenized asset volume and forecasts for growth to $4 trillion by 2028. Arbitrum’s layer-2 infrastructure and revenue-distribution model make the network a potential beneficiary, but adoption pace remains uncertain.
Bitmine expects annual staking revenue from ether of $334 million
Bitmine forecasts annual staking revenue of $334 million thanks to its $15.8 billion crypto reserve: more than 5 million ethers have already been put into staking, enabling regular income even amid volatility.
Last week, Bitmine added 27,180 ETH, increasing its holdings to 5.95 million ETH worth $15.4 billion, which is about 4.9% of the ether supply in circulation. More than 5.06 million ETH is currently staked, which at current rates is estimated to generate $334 million in annual income. According to the Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF webpage, the fund stakes 84.6% of the ether it owns.
Unlike companies that hold bitcoin reserves, Bitmine can earn regular income from its crypto assets through staking. Over the past month, its shares rose by nearly 38%, but since the start of the year they have still been declining, according to Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, Strategy did not buy bitcoin for the second week in a row, instead spending $139.3 million on a buyback of preferred shares.
Phemex CEO: AI drains liquidity from the crypto industry and strengthens attackers
Phemex CEO Federico Varyola said that AI has become «pure negative» for the crypto industry, diverting liquidity away from the sector and empowering attackers that exploit protocols.
Speaking on the Cointelegraph Chain Reaction program, Federico Varyola said that AI «has empowered a multitude of wrongdoers» and increased the costs for small teams on cybersecurity. In July, attackers withdrew approximately $116 million in bitcoin from more than 5,200 addresses associated with a vulnerability in the Coldcard hardware wallet, which is widely believed to have been discovered through malicious AI usage. Coinkite CEO Rodolfo Novak warned that code review using AI is now outpacing the work of experienced experts.
Varyola warned that AI threats could make self-custody of assets and DeFi less attractive to retail users, pushing the industry toward greater centralization. He sees a practical benefit for AI agents in portfolio construction and making trading decisions, but said they cannot fully replace human judgment. Natali Newson from CertiK, however, noted that AI could also be «one of the most effective lines of defense».
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