The market this morning

Two weeks after the Clarity Act's collapse, crypto's fight shifts to the 2027 midterms, as enforcement and new rails fill the day

By Crypto Info News

Good morning. The dominant thread on 30 September was the aftermath of the Clarity Act's failure. The Block reported that Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan argues the bill's defeat left crypto with fewer restrictions and faster action from the SEC. That framing sits awkwardly against the money spent chasing the opposite result: CoinDesk reported that the industry gave $8 million to Clarity Act lobbyists in the first half of the year, most of it tied to a goal the bill never reached.

The fight is now moving to electoral politics. Decrypt reported that a Coinbase-backed group made its first Senate endorsements — Republicans Jon Husted and Ashley Hinson and Democrat Chris Pappas — two weeks after the Act's collapse. Cointelegraph reported the same advocacy push, noting that the endorsements came as many polls showed Democrats favored to regain control of both chambers in 2027.

Enforcement ran in parallel. Chainalysis reported that OFAC designated 10 targets in a Tren de Aragua ATM jackpotting scheme that stole at least $40.73 million, with crypto used to launder the proceeds. The Block reported that the CFTC secured a judgment of over $30 million against defendants in the Fundsz fraud case. And Decrypt reported that the attacker behind the $387.5 million Bitget heist has begun hiding about $3.8 million in ZEC inside Zcash's Ironwood pool, after Near Intents turned away their swaps.

Builders kept shipping. Decrypt and The Block both reported that DogeOS opened a public testnet; The Block described it as a zero-knowledge rollup bringing EVM smart contracts to Dogecoin, with DOGE used for gas. Cointelegraph and The Block reported that Base completed its Cobalt upgrade, adding conditional transactions and new functions for assets issued under its B20 standard. Cointelegraph also reported that Bloomberg brought Allium-powered, hourly onchain stablecoin data to its Terminal.

On outlook, Cointelegraph reported that Standard Chartered expects Ethena's USDe to reach $40 billion and its ENA token to rise roughly sevenfold to $2 by the end of 2028.

The market itself barely moved. Bitcoin closed at $83,576.13, down 0.0765% over 24 hours, with a market capitalisation of $1,679,120,514,824.05. Ether closed at $2,684.71, up 0.2736%. Glassnode, in "Strength Meets a Wall," said bitcoin holds above its key cost bases and profit-taking stays light, but ETF inflows have faded, volume is low, and a wall of sell orders at $85,000–$85,500 caps the price. What to watch: whether that wall holds, and whether the campaign-trail strategy outlasts the lobbying it replaced.