News linked to both this project and an event.
: Galaxy Research Head of Research Alex Thorn stated that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has released the first updated complete draft of the CLARITY Act since January. The new draft features significant adjustments in several key chapters, including:A substantial rewrite of Chapter I concerning definitions and the scope of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) authority; the addition of Section 109 on insider trading; an update in Chapter II changing "common control" to "coordinated control"; a rewrite of Section 301 to further clarify the regulatory boundary between DeFi and CeFi; an update to Section 404 incorporating the compromise proposal from Tillis and Alsobrooks; adjustments to Section 505 narrowing the scope of SEC authority limitations in the tokenization field; and a restructuring of the bankruptcy and insolvency framework in Sections 701 and 702. Additionally, Section 904 is a new addition, namely the "Build Now Act."Alex Thorn also noted that the developer protection provisions in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, found in Section 604, remain largely intact with only minor modifications, without weakening their core protections.
According to The Block, the Ethereum Foundation is restructuring its Protocol team, appointing Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik as the new co-leads of the Protocol cluster. This reorganization comes as Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko plan to depart the organization, and Alex Stokes begins a sabbatical. The Protocol team is the Ethereum Foundation’s core team responsible for the design, research, development, and coordination of Ethereum’s base layer, covering areas such as security, cryptography, zkEVM, and peer-to-peer networking. The team is currently advancing Ethereum’s next major scalability upgrade, Glamsterdam, which aims to raise the gas limit ceiling and floor to 200 million and introduce ePBS. Subsequently, the team will shift its R&D focus toward the Hegotá upgrade and the FOCIL prototype to enhance Ethereum’s censorship resistance.
U.S. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce stated in a speech that she does not endorse certain speculative phenomena currently present in the market; financial products that function like lotteries—sparking hopes of short-term wealth—may fade as investor interest wanes. Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, shared the remarks, noting that Peirce anticipates the underlying legal, technological, and market infrastructure supporting these products could be repurposed in the future for more enduring investment and risk-management products. Meanwhile, Nate Geraci, President of The ETF Store, commented that the SEC’s balancing of regulation and innovation is reassuring, and he speculates that the compliant yet controversial products described by Peirce are in fact “prediction-market ETFs,” which he expects will soon receive approval for listing.
Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins), Head of Research at Galaxy Research, published a post revealing that Galaxy Research has released a new report refuting banking industry claims that the GENIUS Act would erode U.S. bank deposits—and providing quantitative estimates. Key findings from the report include: - Under the GENIUS Act framework, 60%–70% of new stablecoin issuance would originate overseas; inflows of foreign deposits would be approximately twice the volume of domestic deposit migration—indicating a net increase in total deposits rather than a zero-sum reallocation. - Each newly minted GENIUS stablecoin would generate approximately $0.32 in net credit for the U.S. economy. - In the base-case scenario, total credit expansion by 2030 would reach roughly $400 billion; under the optimistic scenario, it could reach $1.2 trillion. - Short-term U.S. Treasury yields (T-bills) would compress by 3–5 basis points, potentially saving taxpayers up to $3 billion annually in borrowing costs. - The report also notes that the interest pass-through mechanism does not pose an existential threat to U.S. banks—it merely represents a reallocation of profit margins and will not reduce overall credit capacity.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy, posted on X stating that the CLARITY Act has taken on heightened urgency, partly due to the exceptionally tight race for control of the U.S. Senate. If Democrats regain control of the Senate, former Senator Sherrod Brown could resume his role as Chair of the Senate Banking Committee; alternatively, if Brown fails to win re-election to the Senate from Ohio but Democrats still secure Senate control, the committee may instead be led by Elizabeth Warren. Such potential leadership changes could significantly influence the regulatory direction for the crypto industry, thereby increasing the practical urgency of advancing the CLARITY Act. Note: Elizabeth Warren is not friendly toward the crypto industry. She has urged the U.S. Department of the Treasury to issue stringent implementing rules for the GENIUS Act and explicitly issued guidance prohibiting the use of federal resources—including the Exchange Stabilization Fund or Federal Reserve emergency lending facilities—to backstop stablecoins or the broader crypto industry.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Research, stated that the U.S. crypto market structure bill—the CLARITY Act—has entered a critical legislative phase. With the Senate’s key compromise proposal on stablecoin yield officially released, positive signals have emerged for the bill’s advancement. The Senate Banking Committee could begin formal consideration as early as the week of May 11. The new proposal explicitly expands the scope of stablecoin yield restrictions—from issuers to third-party platforms, including crypto exchanges such as Coinbase—and stipulates that yields must not be paid solely because users hold stablecoins (i.e., idle balances), nor may rewards be distributed in forms that are economically or functionally equivalent to bank deposit interest.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, stated that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list—the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List—has historically included 518 Bitcoin addresses, which collectively received 249,814 BTC and sent 239,708 BTC, leaving a current net balance of approximately 9,306 BTC—valued at roughly $707 million at current market prices. Thorn also noted that OFAC sanctions represent only one of several U.S. tools for intercepting illicit assets, and the CLARITY Act would further expand the Treasury Department’s related authorities.