Showing a little spine on crypto

About time. And I know of no guarantees that the ridiculously titled CLARITY Act won’t become “law” in any case.

Last week, in the background of the Senate’s desperate scramble to get through the backlog of agenda items that have been piling up all summer, a dramatic showdown of money and power took place over the cryptocurrency industry’s top legislative priority, the CLARITY Act, which would sort digital assets into different categories and split regulation—though regulation is a strong word for the proposed framework in the bill—between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the smaller and more industry-friendly Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)...

But amidst outrage over the $1.4 billion crypto windfall (and counting) that President Trump has taken in during his second term, along with concerns over insufficient safeguards against illicit finance and a stablecoin yield loophole threatening bank deposits, even the most historically reliable allies for the industry within the Senate Democratic caucus—who still support the CLARITY Act’s broader vision—were steadfast in their opposition to the bill in its current form. Despite the industry’s desperation for a vote last week, Democrats managed to delay it until after the recess, and duck for now the scorched-earth revenge campaign from the industry’s political spending arm that might have resulted from voting no.

Though the CLARITY Act isn’t dead yet, the delay is a bad sign for the crypto industry’s legislative agenda, and for their tight relationship with a small, but up to this point sufficient, faction of the Democratic Party. There are even indications that support for crypto is starting to be a hindrance for Democrats in primaries, even with all the campaign cash it brings along. - The American Prospect

Crypto was the biggest fraud enabler in 2025

Entirely unsurprising, especially given the kind of people who pimp crypto.

Americans lost $7.2 billion to crypto investment scams in 2025, according to a new report from the FBI, making it the top source of financial losses from fraud reported to the agency last year. Many people don’t call the FBI after getting scammed, which means the real total is likely far larger.

The news comes from the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) annual report, released (April 6), which tracks not just crypto investment fraud, but online scams targeting the elderly, and ransomware attacks, among others. The agency received 1,008,597 total complaints in 2025, up from 859,532 complaints in 2024. The total amount lost was over $20 billion last year. - Gizmodo