Clarity Act Clears Senate Banking Panel; Bitcoin Touches $82K as Coinbase and Circle Surge

Morning Minute — Tyler Warner (opinions my own). Fast, no-fluff takes on the crypto and markets moves to start your day. Clarity Act advances out of committee The Clarity Act cleared its first major hurdle Thursday, passing the Senate Banking Committee 15–9 in a bipartisan vote that tees up a full Senate fight. Every Republican on the panel backed the bill, joined by two Democrats: Ruben Gallego (AZ) and Angela Alsobrooks (MD). Talks over ethics language broke down late in the process, leaving an unresolved point that could prove pivotal. Sen. Cynthia Lummis said 99% of the bill is settled and urged lawmakers to finish the remaining 1% after the committee vote. Alsobrooks said her support does not guarantee she'll back moving it to a floor vote without the ethics fixes. Markets responded immediately. Bitcoin jumped to $82,000. Circle rose roughly 20% and Coinbase gained about 6%. Prediction markets also repriced: odds of passage climbed to around 70%. What's next: the measure heads to the full Senate, where it will need 60 votes, implying roughly six Democratic crossovers. If it passes, Congress would reconcile this text with the House version (approved 294–134 in July 2025) before sending it to the president. Lummis has warned that missing the current window could push meaningful crypto legislation out to 2030. Coinbase takes a new DeFi role on Hyperliquid; HYPE rips Coinbase and Circle announced a notable institutional DeFi partnership. Under a new framework called AQAv2, Coinbase will serve as the official treasury deployer for USDC on Hyperliquid, with USDC set as the primary stablecoin across Hyperliquid's markets. It's the first time Coinbase has taken a formal treasury deployer role with a major DeFi protocol, a structure that could become a template for other institutional ties. Hyperliquid could see a meaningful revenue uplift (early estimates around 25%), and the arrangement also reads as a concession from a potential perpetuals competitor. The token market cheered: HYPE surged about 20% to roughly $47, reversing recent losses and marking a new local high. Cerebras IPO sparks a fresh AI bid AI chipmaker Cerebras exploded on its Nasdaq debut, trading as much as ~100% above its IPO price after pricing in the low $180s. Mid-session, its market cap topped $100 billion. Cerebras raised about $5.55 billion in one of the largest U.S. IPOs in recent memory. A notable chunk of early price discovery occurred pre-IPO on Hyperliquid's TradeXYZ, where it traded around $300. The debut boosted AI infrastructure plays broadly: Keel Infrastructure +9%, Hive Digital +8%, IREN +5%. Arm and SoftBank reportedly explored acquisitions ahead of the listing. SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are widely expected to pursue IPOs in 2026; if Cerebras demand is the signal, volatility won't be in short supply. Trump–Xi summit: trade tone improves, Taiwan remains the risk President Trump's Beijing meeting with Xi delivered a constructive trade backdrop. Xi said China's "door will only open wider," and negotiators reportedly made progress on tariff rollbacks and purchase commitments. Reports also say China agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets and cleared Nvidia to sell H200 chips to Chinese firms. U.S. executives including Elon Musk and Larry Fink left encouraged by early signs of a thaw. Negotiators established a framework for continued talks, with agriculture and technology deliverables expected in a joint announcement. The warning label remains Taiwan. Xi cautioned that mishandling Taiwan could push relations into a "highly perilous situation." There was no Day One joint statement, though a later joint release could be a near-term catalyst for oil and Bitcoin. Xi's potential U.S. visit on September 24 is emerging as a key date. Kraken shifts $3B+ in bridged assets from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP Kraken said it will migrate more than $3 billion in bridged assets from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP following the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit. In that incident, a LayerZero 1of1 DVN configuration was compromised, an attack attributed to Lazarus Group. Kelp DAO and Solv Protocol have already moved to Chainlink in recent months; Kraken now represents the largest institutional migration. LayerZero acknowledged the mistake of relying on a single verifier for high-value transactions, and the shift underscores how expensive trust can be to rebuild. Also on today's list: corporate treasury updates, ETF flows, and the latest memecoin tracker — full details in the newsletter. Want this daily in five minutes? Check out the new Morning Minute show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.