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6 days ago
On Wednesday, the two largest cryptocurrencies both hit their highest levels since early June; Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed $96,000 and Ethereum (ETH) climbed above $2,800.
Coinciding with these moves has been the return of demand for spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. For example, spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen five straight days of net inflows for the first time since April. The five-day streak totals $1.04 billion ($727 million USD), reversing some of the heavy outflows witnessed across May and June.
As always, various other factors likely contributed to these moves. Some are suggesting that increased optimism surrounding the CLARITY Act (covered below) is playing a role, despite the bill still facing challenges.
The CLARITY Act, a bill in the U.S. that is widely viewed as the most significant piece of legislation to date for crypto, is a major focus in Washington, D.C. this week, with the clock ticking for it to get signed into law this year.
After advancing out of the committee stage in late May, certain steps are still needed before the bill can secure scheduled time (i.e. floor time) for debate, amendments, and a final vote to take place in the Senate.
There are multiple factors contributing to the slow progress, with ethics provisions being the main one. Democrats and certain Republicans have taken issue with the extent to which the Trump family has profited from cryptocurrencies and crypto businesses.
The odds of the CLARITY Act passing this year had been falling in recent weeks, according to Polymarket. However, this week, they rose following multiple reports of an agreement over the language in the bill that would ban government officials from significant crypto ties.
CLARITY Act passage odds rose this week after falling for most of July (Source: Polymarket)
Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute, commented on the ethics negotiations earlier this week, confirming that White House officials had been engaging in talks. “The White House joined discussions last week on ethics language. There is common ground here, and I'm optimistic we will reach it in the coming days.”
The sooner that progress can be made, the greater the likelihood of the bill being voted on before August 7, the last scheduled day of session before Congress breaks for a four-week recess. After that, and until the midterm elections in early November, there would almost certainly be insufficient Senate floor time to dedicate to the CLARITY Act, making the next couple of weeks critical.
Robinhood’s new blockchain remains one of the key talking points from July. As covered earlier this month , Robinhood Chain is a blockchain built using a framework from Arbitrum (ARB), one of the main layer-two networks on Ethereum (ETH).
While lots of buzz and activity is typical whenever a blockchain launches, Robinhood Chain is showing signs of building on that momentum. This is somewhat of a rarity as far as new blockchain launches have gone in recent times.
One metric indicating this is total value locked (TVL). As the below chart from DefiLlama shows, it has steadily climbed over the three weeks that Robinhood Chain has been live. As of July 22, TVL has just crossed $300 million (USD). The majority of that value ($190.6 million USD) has been deposited into Morpho, the DeFi protocol powering Robinhood’s new Earn product, which is being rolled out to eligible U.S. users.
Moving forward, real-world assets (RWAs) and AI are the two categories that Robinhood Chain appears to be targeting. Multiple key figures behind Robinhood Chain have been actively seeking to connect with developers in these spaces.
On a potentially related note, Solana (SOL) has notably lagged the market since Robinhood Chain’s launch on July 1. During this period, SOL has climbed by 6%, compared to BTC and ETH increasing by 13.4% and 23.4%, respectively. If Robinhood Chain is to build on its momentum, it will be interesting to see how SOL performs.
Asset tokenisation and RWAs continue to be among the primary areas of growth in crypto in 2026. In recent times, adoption metrics for tokenised stocks have been particularly notable.
According to venture firm a16z, monthly transfer volume for tokenised stocks reached $13.2 billion ($9.22 billion USD) in June, up from $75.7 million ($53 million USD) last June, an increase of more than 170x.
This metric measures any onchain movements, such as trading, transfers between wallets, or collateral deposits into decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols. While the market for tokenised stocks is still a fraction of their traditional counterparts, the trend is clear.
RWAs are physical, financial, or intangible assets represented on a blockchain through tokenisation. See our resource to learn more .
