Lummis Says CLARITY Act Could Speed Crypto Holds After $6.3B Binance Breach

Sen. Cynthia Lummis said the proposed CLARITY Act could help crypto firms share information with law enforcement and act faster on suspicious transfers after Binance put its breach impact at about $6.3 billion.

“Every minute lost is money gone for good,” Lummis wrote Oct. 30. She characterized more than $6 billion as stolen in less than four hours. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attributed the theft to North Korea and identified the activity as “TraderTraitor.”

The Senate draft proposed two separate measures. Section 10203 would establish a voluntary Treasury-run pilot for information sharing between government agencies and selected private firms. Section 10305 would protect firms from private lawsuits over certain good-faith temporary holds. A qualifying law-enforcement request would have to be in writing and identify a specific wallet, address, account or transaction. The proposal would not require firms to freeze assets beyond existing law.

The Senate rejected a procedural motion to take up H.R. 3633 by 49-50 on Sept. 15; it was not a final passage vote. Binance scheduled the first phase of withdrawal restoration for 1-4 a.m. ET (06:00-09:00 UTC) Nov. 1, with access returning in stages. Binance said it had covered about 95% of the impacted amount, with the remaining 5% in less-liquid tokens; that figure describes coverage, not funds recovered from the attacker.