Senate Set to Vote on Crypto ‘Clarity Act’ as BlackRock Expands Tokenization Push

US lawmakers are set to take a key step toward clarifying how cryptocurrencies are regulated, even as stablecoins, tokenized funds, and security risks across DeFi continue to reshape market structure debates. Next week’s expected Senate Banking Committee vote on a sweeping crypto market framework bill comes amid a flurry of institutional product filings, cross-agency scrutiny of derivatives-like ‘prediction markets’, and heightened on-chain activity that traders are watching for near-term liquidity signals.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis said the U.S. Senate Banking Committee plans to hold an official vote next week on a Bitcoin (BTC) and broader crypto market-structure package widely referred to as the ‘Clarity Act’, according to Bitcoin Magazine. “Let’s pass the Clarity Act in the Banking Committee on Thursday,” Lummis said, framing the measure as an attempt to formalize regulatory jurisdiction and standards for digital asset markets in the U.S.

The bill’s timing matters because market participants have been operating under overlapping—and at times conflicting—assumptions over which federal agency has primary authority. A committee vote would not make the bill law, but it would mark a meaningful procedural milestone and could influence how exchanges, token issuers, and brokers prepare for compliance in the second half of 2026.

In parallel, BlackRock ($BLK) is moving deeper into tokenized cash-like products. Bloomberg, cited by Odaily, reported that the asset manager is working to launch two tokenized money market funds aimed at investors holding cash via a stablecoin-style format. BlackRock has filed to introduce a digital share class for its roughly $6.1 billion ‘BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund’, a vehicle that primarily invests in cash, U.S. Treasuries, and securities with remaining maturities of 93 days or less. The tokenized shares would be issued on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain and run alongside the fund’s traditional share classes.

The development underscores how large asset managers are testing blockchain rails for instruments designed to behave like cash, while regulators weigh how tokenized securities and stablecoin-linked settlement could change the mechanics of payments and capital markets. For crypto-native traders, the push by major incumbents is also viewed as a proxy for longer-term ‘institutional demand’—even if adoption is likely to be incremental rather than immediate.

Still, policymakers and central bankers remain focused on systemic risk. Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, said stablecoins can only become part of the global payments system if international regulatory standards are established, Odaily reported. Bailey warned that some U.S. stablecoins may not be easily convertible into dollars quickly during periods of stress, highlighting ‘liquidity risk’. He also cautioned that if stablecoins become widely used for cross-border payments, funds could flow toward jurisdictions with stricter redemption obligations, potentially amplifying bank-run dynamics.

Bailey’s comments point to a divergence from the Trump administration’s more expansionary posture toward stablecoin adoption, signaling that even if the U.S. accelerates domestic frameworks, global coordination could become the decisive constraint for cross-border use cases.

Regulatory lines are also being tested in ‘prediction markets’. Odaily reported that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are stepping up coordination over how these markets should be policed. Fox Business journalist Charles Gasparino said the agencies have taken aligned positions in a recent investigation into suspicious trading tied to an Iran conflict-related market. While prediction markets are often treated as falling under the CFTC’s remit, Gasparino noted that the SEC could become deeply involved if certain prediction contracts are deemed securities under U.S. law. He added that further enforcement actions may be forthcoming beyond already public cases.

Meanwhile, security and legal enforcement threads continued to reverberate across DeFi. Wasabi Protocol disclosed details of a breach, saying an attacker exploited a Spring Boot Actuator configuration weakness within its AWS infrastructure to steal private keys for EVM smart contracts. Odaily reported that approximately $4.8 million in user funds and roughly $0.9 million from the protocol’s treasury were drained. According to the protocol, the incident began when an actuator heap dump on an analytics public server was not properly password-protected, enabling the attacker to obtain credentials for other servers and seize control of smart-contract keys.

Wasabi said the impact was limited to certain vaults on EVM deployments including Ethereum, Base, Blast, and Berachain, and that its Solana deployment and Prop AMM were not affected. The protocol said a final compensation plan has not yet been determined but that reimbursing users is its top priority, with investigation updates to be posted in its Discord community.

In a separate legal development involving stolen crypto, a federal court in Manhattan approved a plan connected to a North Korea-linked hacking case to move roughly $71 million worth of frozen Ethereum from Arbitrum to a wallet controlled by Aave LLC, Odaily reported. Judge Margaret Garnett authorized Aave’s asset-recovery proposal while preserving the legal claims of plaintiffs who are terror victims. The ruling also modified prior freeze notices involving Arbitrum DAO, and any on-chain execution would need to proceed through an Arbitrum governance vote.

On-chain flows, particularly in Ethereum and stablecoins, were also in focus as large transfers to exchanges often raise questions about near-term selling pressure. Whale Alert flagged a transfer of 30,000 ETH—worth about $69.37 million—from an unknown wallet to Binance. Separately, PANews, citing Onchain Lens, reported that Garrett Jin—described as an early Bitcoin holder—deposited 108,169 ETH (roughly $250 million at current prices) into Binance. Odaily also cited Arkham data showing a whale wallet labeled “Hyperunit” transferring about $180 million worth of ETH to Binance.

Such deposits are frequently interpreted as potential sell-side positioning, although exchange inflows do not confirm that assets have been sold. Coins can be moved for collateral management, custody consolidation, OTC settlement, or internal treasury operations.

At the same time, Santiment said Ethereum-based Tether (USDT) saw a net outflow of $1.29 billion from exchanges last Friday—the largest in roughly three months. The analytics firm said the move may reflect institutions or whales shifting funds to self-custody wallets, DeFi protocols, or OTC venues rather than exiting the crypto ecosystem entirely. Santiment also pointed to a prior episode on Feb. 9, when a $3.72 billion exchange outflow preceded about two weeks of Bitcoin weakness, suggesting traders may watch whether USDT returns to exchanges in the coming days as a signal for renewed ‘liquidity inflow’ into spot markets.

Together, the developments highlight a market increasingly shaped by policy process, institution-led product innovation, and the plumbing of on-chain liquidity. With U.S. lawmakers advancing a market-structure vote and global regulators debating stablecoin standards, traders are likely to keep one eye on Washington and another on exchange flows as the next phase of crypto’s regulatory and capital-markets integration unfolds.