Clarity Act Moves Closer as Bitcoin Waits on AI Earnings | Daily Crypto Roundup

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Welcome back to the Daily Crypto Roundup. The Clarity Act has just moved another major step closer to becoming law. For the first time, senators are now circulating what could become the final version of the legislation, including the controversial ethics restriction that Donald Trump reportedly agreed to earlier this week. That is the good news. The less encouraging part is that the restriction would expire in 2029 Enforcement would be left to the Department of Justice and the Democrats whose votes are needed had reportedly not yet been shown the complete draft. So the deal is moving. The legislation is taking shape, but this is definitely not finished. We also have Bitcoin holding close to $66,000 as investors wait for Alphabet's earnings to find out whether the enormous amounts of money being spent on artificial intelligence are actually generating results. Franklin Templeton believes the next major artificial intelligence investment may not be NVIDIA or another semiconductor company.
It could be the blockchains and cryptocurrencies that allow autonomous AI agents to pay one another. Gary Gensler's missing text messages have cost the Securities and Exchange Commission $150,000 in its dispute with Coinbase. And Revolut has reportedly reached a valuation of $115 billion, making the cryptocurrency-friendly financial company more valuable on paper than some of Europe's largest traditional banks. Before we get into everything, today we are asking the entire Crypto News Today community to help us celebrate the Clarity Act moving another step closer. Go on to Spotify, find the podcast page, press the three dots and leave us a five-star rating. It does not cost anything, it takes less than a minute, and it helps Spotify understand that people value the work we are doing every day.
We have followed this legislation through every delay, negotiation and political argument. Now that an actual working draft is circulating, let us show Spotify that the cryptocurrency community is paying attention. Looking at the market, Bitcoin is trading at approximately $66,000 after pulling back slightly from a recent high near $66,900.
Ethereum is around $1,940.
XRP is close to $1.15.
BNB is approximately $572.
Solana is near $78. And Cardano is trading around $0.18.
The market is relatively calm, but several enormous decisions are approaching at the same time.
Let us begin with the latest Clarity Act development. A new version of the legislation began circulating on cryptocurrency industry representatives on Wednesday. The text reportedly runs to hundreds of pages and combines work previously completed by the Senate Banking Committee and Senate Agriculture Committee. Most importantly, it now includes a section designed to restrict cryptocurrency conflicts of interest involving the president and other senior government officials. That ethics provision was the biggest political obstacle remaining in negotiations. Democrats have argued that Donald Trump should not be allowed to influence cryptocurrency policy while maintaining extensive financial interests in businesses connected to the industry. Republicans met with Trump last week, and the White House subsequently claimed that he had agreed to an extremely broad ethics restriction.
The new draft provides the first indication of what that agreement could actually look like.
Regulators would be given one year after the legislation becomes law to implement the restrictions. However, the ethics rules are currently scheduled to expire in 2029 That could become a serious problem. Democrats may argue that a temporary restriction is not good enough, particularly if it disappears shortly after Trump leaves office or before the wider issue of politicians owning cryptocurrency businesses has been permanently resolved. Enforcement would also reportedly fall to the Department of Justice. Critics are likely to question how effective that would be when the Department of Justice operates under the executive branch headed by the president covered by the restriction. This is why we should celebrate the progress without declaring victory too early. The bill will probably require at least 60 votes to advance through the Senate, meaning Republicans are expected to need support from at least 10 Democrats. Many Democratic senators had not yet seen the complete draft when it was initially circulated to industry representatives. Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the legislation's leading Republican supporters, said she remains committed to reaching an agreement that allows the bill to become law. Digital Chamber Chief Executive Cody Carbone described the draft as a meaningful step toward the Senate vote. That is probably the most accurate description. It is a meaningful step, not the finish line. There are several positive developments inside the new text. The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act reportedly remains intact. That provision would protect developers who create or maintain blockchain software without controlling customer funds. They would not automatically be treated as money transmitters simply because someone uses their code to complete a transaction. That distinction is vital for decentralized finance. Writing software is not the same as holding someone's money, operating an exchange or controlling a financial transaction. Miller White House Levine from the Solana Policy Institute said the legislation would provide clearer treatment for tokens and fundraising, establish rules for exchanges and give financial institutions the green light to use public blockchains. The draft would also create a potential regulatory route for tokenized securities and futures markets to operate on chain. The Senate is running out of time. It is scheduled to leave Washington for its summer break in early August. Although lawmakers will return in September, attention will increasingly move towards the November midterm elections. That makes the next couple of weeks extremely important.