U.S. Senate Opened First Stage of Clarity Act Voting | CoinDesk Daily

Sam Ewen (0:00)

Bitcoin's breakaway BIP 110 chain sputters out after just two blocks, and the Senate finally moved on the crypto market structure bill.

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RealFi, a smarter stable coin backed by real world assets. Join the testnet now at realfi.co. The Senate took its first procedural steps on the Clarity Act over the weekend. Leadership moved early Saturday to start floor action after a marathon overnight session. But the bill missed its window for a vote before the summer break, leaving it a long shot for September. Clarity likely needs at least 10 Democrats to clear the 60 vote threshold, but that support is in doubt, largely over the debates on the ethics provision. The minority chain that split from Bitcoin on Saturday has produced just two blocks in roughly eight hours, and no miner seems willing to keep it alive. BIP 110 supporters forked away a block 961,632, running software that rejects any block not signaling support for the proposal.

Now the breakaway chain is stuck. Bitcoin only adjusts mining difficulty every 2016 blocks, and with almost no machines behind it, that reset is an estimated 350 days away. And crypto exchange Coinsbuy lost more than $8 million in a coordinated attack across Tron and Ethereum. The attacker drained eight Tron wallets of about 6 million USDT in under an hour, then emptied three Ethereum wallets of another 1.89 million USDT and 77 ETH. Within 24 hours, Coinsbuy refilled the drained wallets and says it covered every affected amount from its own reserves with no client losses. Get more updates on coindesk.com. RealFi, a smarter stablecoin backed by real world assets. Join the testnet now at realfi.co.