Clarity Act Nears Finish Over Ethics

Mable Jiang of Trasia | Citadel Invests $400M In Crypto.com

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
July 17, 2026

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The Clarity Act's fate now hinges less on crypto policy substance than on whether Congress can craft ethics language addressing Trump's personal crypto conflicts, with Democrats signaling they won't budge without a real deal in place.

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In Today's Email:

What Matters: Clarity Act Nears Finish Over Ethics 👀
Founders Highlight: Mable Jiang of Trasia 👩
Deal Flows: Citadel Invests $400M In Crypto.com 💰️

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Narratives: Regulatory Limbo

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WHAT MATTERS

Clarity Act Nears Finish Over Ethics

State of play: The Clarity Act's fate now hinges less on crypto policy substance than on whether Congress can craft ethics language addressing Trump's personal crypto conflicts, with Democrats signaling they won't budge without a real deal in place.

Rep. Timmons says the bill is a top Trump priority and expects passage within the next few months, before November elections.
Trump, Sens. Moreno and Lummis, and White House officials met Thursday to resolve ethics provisions and secure Trump's sign-off.
Sen. Gallego says current ethics text lacks Democratic input and won't get Democratic votes without real ethics guardrails.
Senate Majority Leader Thune wants a floor vote before August recess, but House reconciliation may slip past this session.
Gaming groups are pushing prediction market amendments, which Blockchain Association's Mersinger calls a likely "poison pill."

Why it matters: Ethics language has become the actual bottleneck, not crypto market structure itself, meaning the bill's timeline is now a function of presidential politics rather than policy consensus.

Our take: Democrats aren't negotiating from the text being shown to Trump, and self-policing ethics language written to satisfy the person it constrains rarely survives contact with the other party.

For builders and investors: Treat "before the August recess" as aspirational. Firms building compliance roadmaps around Clarity should plan for a Q4 or post-election timeline, not a summer signing.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Mable Jiang of Trasia

Intro: Mable Jiang is the Co-Founder of Trasia, a decentralized, non-custodial trading platform designed specifically for Asian traders.

Previous background: Jiang is a former Multicoin Capital partner and most recently served as chief revenue officer at Find Satoshi Lab (FSL), the web3 development studio behind the move-to-earn app Stepn.

The big idea: Trasia's big idea is tow in Asian traders who've never used Hyperliquid or onchain trading.

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INSIGHTS

JPMorgan Sees Bitcoin Encouraging Signs

JPMorgan analysts flagged Strategy's cash reserve buildup and steady institutional futures flows as encouraging signs for bitcoin, even as spot ETF flows stay volatile and directionless.

Strategy increased dollar reserves from $2.55B to $3B, covering about 20 months of preferred dividend payments.
Leveraged Strategy ETF flows stayed positive for seven straight weeks, likely supporting MSTR's share price above NAV.
Bitcoin futures on CME and perpetuals posted positive flows this week despite spot ETF outflows.
JPMorgan says it's unclear whether Strategy's cash buildup has directly shifted broader bitcoin investor sentiment.
CEO Phong Le said Strategy feels "very secure" and would only worry about debt risk near $8K to $10K BTC.

DEAL FLOWS

Citadel Invests $400M In Crypto.com

Deal flows soared this week - we saw $700M+ in deals 💼

Citadel Securities' $400M strategic investment in Crypto.com at a $20B valuation marks the exchange's first institutional funding round ever, deepening the market maker's pattern of buying stakes across crypto's largest platforms.

Crypto.com plans to use the funding to expand tokenized securities and derivatives operations.
The deal mirrors Citadel's $200M investment in Kraken last November, also at a $20B valuation.
Crypto.com previously raised only modest capital, including a $13M early round and a 2017 ICO worth $26.7M.
Citadel has also backed Ripple, Digital Asset, and tokenization firm Alpaca in recent crypto deals.
Coinbase, the only major exchange that's public, trades at roughly a $43B market cap for comparison.

Deal flows in the past week:

Trasia, $2M Seed Round
Zero Delta, $6.8M Seed Round
Pact Labs, $7M Series A Round
Pascal, $9M Series A Round
Cyclops, $20M Series A Round
Velocity, $34M Series A Round
Flex, $70M Series B Round
AXON Finance, $2M Strategic Round
Savior Of Health, $4M Strategic Round
TrueDAO, $10M Strategic Round
Crypto.com, $400M Strategic Round
Alpaca, $135M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

Polygon Labs announces second round of layoffs.
Visa launching internal stablecoin platform for clients.
Citadel Securities invests $400M in Crypto.com at $20B valuation.
Taiwan sentences BitShine ringleader to 22 years in $39M fraud case.
T. Rowe Price launches first actively managed multi-token crypto ETF.
Trump's staff accused of using insider knowledge to place bets on Kalshi.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

The Smart Ape’s read on bitcoin is in danger.
Blockworks' read on the Mechanics of Onchain Tranching.
delost’s read on The Order Book Predicts the Next Move 62% of the Time.

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