The U.S. Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, but regulators moved ahead with separate initiatives covering tokenized equities and derivatives software. Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP all rose during the week, while Arbitrum (ARB) gained 64.3%. Standard Chartered put a potential 2030 target of $10 on ARB, implying roughly 70 times upside from current levels, although that view depends on the pace of asset tokenization and Arbitrum's ability to compete with other blockchain networks.
CLARITY Act falls short of 60-vote threshold
After roughly a year of negotiations, the Senate failed to pass a motion to end debate on the CLARITY Act. The vote was 49 in favor and 50 against, short of the 60 votes required.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis voted against the motion but later said his decision was not a conventional rejection of the legislation. Tillis said he changed his position at the last moment so that lawmakers could bring the measure back for another vote.
The bill is not necessarily closed off from further consideration. The GENIUS Act previously stalled on a similar procedural vote before passing 11 days later. However, Democrats and Republicans remain divided, and the limited number of legislative days left in Congress is narrowing the time available for a compromise in 2026.
Representative Shri Thanedar, a Democrat who supports the CLARITY Act, said the current Congress has only 20 legislative days remaining, all scheduled after the midterm elections. That timing has sharply reduced the chances of reaching an agreement in 2026.
The seven Democratic senators who previously voted against the bill still support efforts to advance the legislation. Senator Angela Alsobrooks said Democrats had been prepared to reach a deal before the vote, but Republican leadership ended the process at the last minute.
Abhishek Vaidyanathan, chief legal officer at NEAR, noted that the House had canceled a planned two-week session and that the Senate's state work period begins on October 5. In his view, the next Congress may be the next major window for debate on crypto market structure after the CLARITY Act failed to clear the procedural hurdle.
SEC opens a limited path for tokenized stocks
Ripple Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse said U.S. regulators would continue developing rules despite the legislative pause. Two days later, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a five-year innovation exemption allowing limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks on decentralized public blockchains.
The exemption permits eligible tokenized stocks to trade through automated market makers without requiring the trading platform to register as a securities exchange. It does not cover “synthetic” stock tokens that fail to give holders all the rights associated with traditional shares.
That condition could affect most of the stock tokens previously issued by xStocks and Robinhood. Whether those products give holders the same rights as conventional shareholders remains central to determining whether they qualify for the exemption.
CFTC eases access rules for some derivatives software
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission later issued a no-action position for providers of “passive software.” Eligible providers and their employees will not face a CFTC enforcement recommendation for connecting users with CFTC-regulated derivatives firms and exchanges without registering as introducing brokers or associated persons.
The arrangement could make it easier for crypto wallets and other applications to connect users with regulated derivatives markets, including perpetual contracts and prediction markets. It applies only to providers that meet the stated conditions and does not create a broad exemption for all trading software or platforms.
The CFTC also submitted a proposed rule titled “Regulation of Crypto Asset Trading and Regulation of Crypto Asset Markets” to the White House. The measure remains at the pre-rule stage and has not yet been formally proposed.
Coinbase this week applied to offer U.S. retail investors around-the-clock perpetual futures tied to U.S. stocks. Kalshi submitted a similar application on the same day, highlighting the expanding product pipeline for stock-related derivatives at regulated firms.
House panel advances Bitcoin reserve legislation
The House Financial Services Committee approved the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 this week. The bill would place the strategic Bitcoin reserve established by executive order into a statutory framework and create a digital asset reserve within the Treasury Department containing other confiscated crypto assets.
The legislation would require every federal agency to conduct a comprehensive audit of its digital asset holdings and submit quarterly proof-of-reserves reports. It would also require a study of ways to acquire more Bitcoin without increasing the federal budget deficit.
Connor Brown, executive director of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, called the committee vote a “truly historic step” for Bitcoin policy. Separately, the House Ways and Means Committee advanced the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act with bipartisan support, seeking to redesign the federal tax treatment of digital assets.
Revolut data incident brings a new ransom demand
A hacker using the name “IAmNotAVillain” issued a new ransom demand after sensitive Revolut customer information, including passports and KYC selfies, was stolen. The attacker demanded 6,000 Monero within 24 hours, threatening to sell the data to criminal groups if Revolut did not pay.
A group calling itself “Revolut Smilik” had previously demanded 10,000 Bitcoin, worth about $780 million at the time. IAmNotAVillain said that earlier demand may have come from a former associate who held only a small amount of the data. The incident has kept attention on how financial platforms store identity documents and biometric information.
Bitcoin gains 5.9%; NEAR leads the market
By the end of the week, Bitcoin had risen 5.9% to $81,185. Ethereum gained 6.6% to $2,639, while XRP advanced 5.4% to $1.40. The total crypto market capitalization stood at $2.78 trillion.
Among the 100 largest crypto assets by market value, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) posted the biggest weekly gain at 76.4%. Arbitrum (ARB) rose 64.3%, and Ethena (ENA) gained 61.6%. The three biggest decliners were Stable (STABLE), Pi (PI) and SPX6900 (SPX), down 11.6%, 11.3% and 1.8%, respectively.
Standard Chartered sets a $10 long-term ARB target
Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered's global head of digital asset research, said Arbitrum could reach as much as $10 by 2030. From current levels, that would represent roughly 70 times potential upside and would exceed the bank's expected returns for Bitcoin and Ethereum over the same period.
Kendrick said Arbitrum's protocol economics offer significant room for growth. Companies deploying on the network direct 10% of their net protocol revenue to Arbitrum. Robinhood Chain is viewed as the first major example, with related fees expected to lift Arbitrum's September revenue to $5 million, about five times the level before Robinhood Chain launched in July.
Kendrick also identified key risks to the projection, including slower-than-expected growth in tokenized assets and competition from other blockchain networks. The target is a research estimate, not a forecast of the actual path or outcome of the price.
Chainalysis sees 420% rise in on-chain malware activity
Chainalysis found that attackers stored malware commands or infrastructure details on public blockchains 420% more often over the past 12 months. State-linked hacking groups accounted for about two-thirds of new activity recorded in each quarter.
The firm identified actors linked to North Korea and Iran and attributed some previously unidentified activity to UNC5342, a North Korea-linked group tracked by Google Threat Intelligence. The activity involved Tron, Aptos and BNB Smart Chain (BSC).
Storing this information on a public blockchain can keep it accessible even after domains, servers or code repositories are shut down, Chainalysis said. That can extend the operating life of malware campaigns.
BIS finds sixfold variance in Bitcoin transfer estimates
Researchers at the Bank for International Settlements found that estimates of Bitcoin on-chain transfer values can differ by as much as six times, depending on how transactions are measured. The main differences involve change outputs and whether transactions that return assets to the original sender are included.
Measurement choices also affect estimates of Bitcoin's market value. The researchers found that conventional market capitalization can reach four times realized capitalization during some periods. Realized capitalization values each Bitcoin at the price when it most recently moved, rather than at the current market price used for conventional market capitalization.
Former Hong Kong bank manager jailed over fake letters of credit and crypto bribes
Lam Chun-yin, a former bank relationship manager in Hong Kong, was sentenced to four years in prison for fake letters of credit with a certified value exceeding $1.6 billion. He was also ordered to repay more than $470,000 in cryptocurrency bribes.
Lam, 32, previously worked as a relationship manager at China Construction Bank (Asia) and pleaded guilty to the offenses in the District Court. The value of the letters of credit and the cryptocurrency payments illustrate how digital assets are increasingly appearing as evidence in financial-crime investigations and asset-recovery cases.
Three issues to watch this week
The central question surrounding the CLARITY Act is whether it can return to the Senate floor during the limited time remaining in the current Congress. The amendments sought by Democrats could still affect the timetable, while the small number of legislative days leaves little room for further negotiations.
Another debate concerns Bitcoin treasury companies. These firms seek to increase Bitcoin exposure through their balance sheets, but their share prices, financing conditions and digital asset prices are linked in several ways. Potential returns and downside risks need to be assessed separately.
The Revolut incident has also renewed discussion about how KYC information is stored. Zero-knowledge technology can verify identity without requiring complete identity documents to be retained over the long term, but practical deployment still involves cost, regulatory requirements and user-experience considerations.