Crypto Market Update: Senate Banking Committee Prepares for High-Stakes Clarity Act Vote

Altcoin price update

• XRP (XRP) It was priced at US$1.45, up 1.6 percent in 24 hours.

• Solana (SOL) Was trading at US$95.12, up 1.1 percent in the last 24 hours.

Today’s Crypto News to Know

Senate Banking Committee prepares for Clarity Act vote

The Senate Banking Committee is preparing to vote on the much-anticipated Clarity Act this week.

Chairman Tim Scott confirmed The panel will hold a key working session on Thursday (May 14) to tackle the legislation, which aims to clearly classify digital tokens as securities, commodities or entirely new assets.

The biggest controversy in the bill concerns stablecoins – specifically whether cryptocurrency platforms can offer rewards that compete directly with traditional bank deposits.

A bipartisan agreement Recent legislation brokered by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks would ban passive rewards entirely while allowing activity-based incentives such as paid rewards.

Not surprisingly, the powerful banking lobby is opposing it, arguing that the provision risks eroding the fundamental deposit base of the insured banking system. While Tillis acknowledged Banks’ frustration, he declined to provide any further grounds, saying that they would simply “agree to disagree.”

Strategy to Resume Bitcoin Buying, Saylor Clarifies “Never Sell” Principle

Michael Saylor’s Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) is back to its aggressive accumulation habits, buying another 43 BTC for US$535 million after a brief pause last week. The latest acquisition brings the corporate treasury’s massive stash to 818,869 BTC, bringing its total digital asset value to approximately US$61.9 billion.

The renewed buying spree comes after Sellers refined its famous “never sell” philosophy podcast interviewMaking it clear that their real stance is to “never be a net seller” of the asset.

The firm’s recent earnings call revealed that the strategy now has the flexibility to potentially sell small fractions of Bitcoin to offset common stock sales and cover its dividend obligations. Those obligations arise from STRC, the company’s highly liquid perpetual preferred stock that currently yields about 11.5 percent annually.

The strategy sold a massive US$3.2 billion in STRC last April alone to finance Bitcoin purchases, generating a quarterly dividend requirement of about US$80 million to US$90 million.

However, Saylor says that the mathematics overwhelmingly favors continued accumulation.

Circle Secures US$222M Presale for New Ark Blockchain

Stablecoin powerhouse Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL) is owned Raised US$222 million achieved a fully diluted valuation of US$3 billion, in a massive token presale to fund its highly anticipated Ark blockchain.

Venture capital heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz led the larger round with a US$75 million investment, which included significant participation from traditional Wall Street titans BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) and Apollo Funds.

Along with the funding announcement, Circle published the official whitepaper for Ark, detailing how the native token will power the governance, security, and daily operations of the network.

Layer-1 blockchains are heavily engineered to balance strict regulatory compliance with user privacy, using a complex modular privacy system that includes zero-knowledge proofs and multi-party computation.

Circle recently announced its blockbuster Q1 earnings, which revealed a 28 percent increase in USDC circulation to US$77 billion and an explosive 263 percent increase in transaction volume.