Will the U.S. Clarity Act Soon Come to a Vote? During the first half of the year, the U.S. Clarity Act has been one of the main topics in the crypto market. The bill is designed to give the U.S. crypto industry clearer rules. Among other things, it could strengthen customer protections, improve the operating environment for crypto companies, and make it easier for traditional financial institutions to engage more deeply with digital assets.
The market has been waiting for the Clarity Act throughout the year, but several issues have slowed progress between the different stakeholders. These include Republicans, Democrats, traditional financial institutions, crypto companies, and others. One key point of disagreement was whether crypto firms should be allowed to pay interest on stablecoin holdings. That issue was resolved in May, but other questions remain, including ethics rules around how publicly elected officials may interact with digital assets.
The next step is a full Senate vote. The Senate is on break until July 13, although the parties can still work on the remaining issues before then. Many now seem to agree that the bill needs to pass the Senate before lawmakers leave for another break in the third week of August if it is to become law this year, as the November midterm elections will complicate matters later. As a result, the risk that the Clarity Act does not become law in 2026 has increased. Prediction markets now give it a 40% chance of passing this year, which implies a 60% chance that it does not.
Major Japanese Financial Services Group Acquires Crypto Exchange: SBI Holdings, a major Japanese financial services group, announced last week that it intends to acquire Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank for around $289 million. SBI expects the transaction to close in October, subject to regulatory approval.
SBI has already bought another crypto exchange, Bitpoint, and the company is generally known for being positive toward cryptocurrencies. The Bitbank acquisition is therefore not especially surprising. Still, it is a positive signal that a large financial conglomerate is continuing to deepen its exposure to crypto.
The Digital Euro Passes a Key Hurdle: Last Tuesday, the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) committee voted to approve the legal framework for a digital euro. This would be a central bank digital currency, or CBDC: a currency issued directly by a central bank on its own centralized infrastructure. In principle, CBDCs can be used without extra financial intermediaries such as banks or credit card issuers. The digital euro could be introduced by 2029, with the European Central Bank (ECB) now set to run a 12-month pilot phase using a beta version.
The approval from the European Parliament came as the U.S. Senate voted to place a four-year ban on CBDCs, largely because of privacy concerns. To some extent, the digital euro would compete with stablecoins issued on public blockchains. How directly it competes will depend on several factors, including the launch timeline, how the digital euro works in practice, and whether it becomes widely available.
