News linked to both this project and an event.
the long-awaited digital asset regulatory bill, the CLARITY Act, has hit a snag in its advancement. Senate Majority Leader John Thune stated that the Senate is not expected to pass the bill before the August recess.The CLARITY Act aims to establish a clearer regulatory framework for digital assets, promoting the integration of blockchain and crypto assets into the mainstream financial system. Previously, the bill had undergone multiple rounds of negotiations between the crypto industry and opposing forces, such as the banking sector, and was once considered close to passage.However, recent controversy surrounding conflicts of interest related to President Donald Trump and his family's involvement in crypto projects has emerged as a new obstacle. Democrats are demanding the inclusion of ethical clauses in the bill that would restrict government officials from profiting from crypto transactions, a stance Republicans have previously opposed. Prediction market data indicates that the probability of the CLARITY Act passing this year has significantly declined. Polymarket data shows that as of Friday, the probability stood at approximately 37%, well below the over 80% level seen earlier this spring.Crypto policy organizations and industry insiders believe the current delay is largely influenced by the political dynamics of the U.S. midterm elections. Ron Hammond, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Wintermute, stated that the votes to support the bill may still exist, but "election politics are louder." He suggested that a window for advancing the bill could still emerge after the November elections.Analysts point out that if Congress needs to prioritize major issues such as government funding and national defense before the end of its current term, the CLARITY Act could be further marginalized. As the U.S. political landscape may shift following the midterm elections, the outlook for crypto regulatory legislation remains highly uncertain. (Fortune)
Velocity, a stablecoin payment infrastructure startup, announced the completion of a $38 million Series A funding round. This round was led by crypto investment firm Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase, Capital One Ventures, Wintermute, and other institutions. Velocity CEO Eric Queathem did not disclose the latest valuation. Founded in 2025, Velocity focuses on providing stablecoin payment solutions for enterprises, payment service providers, fintech companies, and financial institutions, helping them leverage dollar-pegged tokens to optimize cross-border payments, fund settlement, and treasury management processes.Currently, Velocity has covered markets in the United States, parts of Europe, and Australia. The company plans to use the new funds to apply for licenses, expand into Africa and Latin America, while also investing in building more secure asset custody infrastructure and developing new features, including stablecoin yield products. (Fortune)
According to PR Newswire, the Open Transaction Layer (OTL) officially launched on May 28 as an open industry initiative aimed at establishing a unified transaction coordination standard for on-chain finance. OTL defines shared protocols among institutions, non-custodial wallets, and AI agents for identity verification, messaging, and transaction coordination—covering the entire transaction lifecycle, including discovery, compliance, and settlement. The founding alliance comprises over 25 members, including leading financial institutions, payment service providers, and blockchain foundations such as Fireblocks, Checkout.com, Cross River Bank, MetaMask, Robinhood, Securitize, Wintermute, Solana Foundation, and Polygon. OTL’s technical specifications are built upon mature standards including W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and ISO 20022, and adopt a modular five-layer architecture covering Identity, Session, Transport, Messaging, and Application layers. The specifications have been published under an open-source license at otl.network, and the alliance is also open to additional institutional participation.
: Multiple institutions including Robinhood, MetaMask, and eToro, along with Fireblocks, Checkout.com, Cross River Bank, Securitize, Wintermute, and others, jointly announced their participation in the "Open Transaction Layer (OTL)" initiative, aimed at establishing a unified transaction coordination protocol layer for on-chain finance.OTL is positioned as an open protocol stack for coordinating identity verification, compliance validation, transaction messaging, and execution processes among wallets, institutions, and AI agents, addressing the integration fragmentation problem currently plaguing cross-institutional interactions in on-chain finance, where entities operate in silos.The current coalition members include payment companies, trading platforms, wallets, market makers, and custody and stablecoin infrastructure providers, including Robinhood, MetaMask, eToro, MoonPay, SoFi, Wintermute, among others, as well as foundations from multiple public chains such as TON, Solana, Stellar, and Polygon. (Financefeeds)
Wintermute’s weekly market report indicates Bitcoin recently broke through $80,000 and briefly touched around $83,000, while also reclaiming the 200-day moving average for the first time in seven months. However, this rally is clearly more driven by leveraged capital rather than spot buying.The report notes that over the past month, Bitcoin open interest increased by approximately $10 billion, while spot trading volume dropped to a two-year low, a classic short squeeze scenario. Although ETFs still recorded net inflows of $623 million and BTC reserves on exchanges fell to a seven-year low, the current RSI has entered overbought territory. If spot buying fails to sustain after the short squeeze ends, BTC prices could face a rapid correction risk.Wintermute also stated that the current crypto market rally is more driven by the strength of US equities and the resonance of leverage, rather than an independent bull market narrative. Upcoming US CPI data and changes in Federal Reserve policy expectations will be key factors in determining whether BTC can stably hold above $80,000.
According to Financialit, stablecoin financial services platform UnblockPay has announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed funding round, led by Prelude, with participation from Plug and Play, Wintermute, Reverie, Signature Ventures, Triaxis Capital, Crescera Capital, and a group of angel investors. The new capital will support the development of regulated financial products, enabling businesses to integrate stablecoins into their day-to-day financial operations and facilitating seamless conversions between fiat currencies and major stablecoins such as USDC and USDT for enterprise users.
According to CoinDesk, Ron Hammond, Policy Lead at crypto market maker Wintermute, stated that the U.S. crypto market structure bill—the Clarity Act—continues to face multiple obstacles in its legislative process, with only about a 30% chance of passage this year. The bill aims to clarify the respective regulatory responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC over digital assets. However, current negotiations are progressing unevenly, and the timeline has been repeatedly delayed. Key resistance stems from traditional banking institutions—particularly over whether stablecoins should be permitted to generate yield—a point of serious disagreement. Related compromise proposals have repeatedly stalled. Moreover, internal divisions among Democrats, as well as issues concerning DeFi compliance and anti-money laundering (AML), further add uncertainty to the legislation. That said, Ron Hammond believes the bill still retains room for advancement; whether it can be enacted this year ultimately hinges on whether critical disagreements can be resolved.