Autor Cointelegraph By Jesse Coghlan

Members of the US Senate Banking Committee have filed more than 100 amendments to a crypto market structure bill set for markup on Thursday, with the proposed changes mostly related to stablecoins, software developers and ethics. According to a list obtained by POLITICO, Democratic senators have proposed dozens of changes, while Republicans are seeking slight adjustments to the bill. It is not clear what the specific details of each amendment are, but some concern issues the committee has been seeking to solve for months, including stablecoin yield, crypto software developer protections and ethics provisions.The list offers insight into the issues the committee will likely debate at the bill’s markup on Thursday as it seeks to advance the measure to the Senate floor. The Senate Banking Committee indefinitely delayed a previous markup in January after major crypto lobbyist Coinbase withdrew support for the bill.The legislation aims to divide how US market regulators oversee crypto, with the House passing a version of it in July called the CLARITY Act. Crypto and banking lobbyists, along with lawmakers, have fought over provisions on stablecoins and whether government officials should be barred from involvement in crypto.Further restrictions on offering stablecoin yields have been the bill’s most contentious provision, with banking and crypto lobbyists failing to reach an agreement after months of negotiations.A version of the bill released on Monday banned third-party platforms like crypto exchanges from offering yield on stablecoins in a way that is “functionally equivalent” to the payment of interest on an interest-bearing bank deposit.The list shows Democratic Senators Jack Reed and Tina Smith introducing an amendment to “strengthen [the] prohibition on interest/yield by using a ‘substantially similar’ test rather than an ‘equivalence’ test.”An excerpt of the leaked list showing amendments for debate by Senator Jack Reed, with one supported by Senator Tina Smith. Source: POLITICOAnother planned amendment from Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen pitches an ethics provision that Democrats and some Republicans have supported, which would bar the president, vice president, senior officials, members of Congress and their families from owning, promoting or being affiliated with crypto.Related: Seven Democrats seen as ‘key’ to advancing CLARITY Act: GalaxyDemocratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto also plans an amendment protecting software developers by “creating a safe harbor from criminal liability for not registering as a money transmitter,” a provision that is supported by many crypto groups.Other amendments concern sanctions, institutions engaging in crypto, and one from Democratic Senator Andy Kim that seeks to reestablish the Justice Department’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which the department dismantled in April last year.Republicans have a majority on the Banking Committee and in the Senate, but some party members, such as Senator Thom Tillis, have said they won’t support the bill without certain provisions.Republicans also control the Senate, but will need some Democrats onside to pass it with a three-fifths majority to end any potential debate on the bill.Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said international regulators will have to “wrestle” with the US over global rules for stablecoins, which are largely denominated in and backed by US dollars.“If ​we want stablecoins to be part of the architecture of payments globally […] they’re ‌only ⁠going to work if we have international standards,” Bailey said at a conference on Friday, according to Reuters. “Frankly, that, I think, is going to be a coming wrestle with the [US] administration,” he added.US President Donald Trump has the goal of attracting the crypto industry to the US and has promoted the use of stablecoins through the GENIUS Act, which gave a regulatory framework to stablecoin issuers.Other regulators are looking into greater oversight and control of stablecoins compared to the US, seeing them as a lighter-regulated alternative to the banking system that could impose systemic risks.The stablecoin market is currently valued at more than $317 billion, according to CoinGecko, with the largest stablecoins by market capitalization dominated by tokens pegged to the US dollar, most of which use US Treasury bills and US dollars as backing assets.Bailey, who chairs the Financial Stability Board, an international body that aims to coordinate regulation, said he sees stablecoins as a potential threat to financial stability.Andrew Bailey at a press conference in February after a meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee on interest rates. Source: YouTubeBailey added that he was concerned some stablecoins could not be readily converted to cash without the use of a crypto exchange, which could limit their convertibility in changing market conditions.He said if stablecoins are widely used for cross-border payments, then the US dollar tokens that are hard to convert could flow to other countries, like the UK, which is planning to have strong laws around converting stablecoins.“We know ​what would happen if there was a run on a stablecoin; they’d all turn ​up here,” Bailey said.Related: US Senator questions Mark Zuckerberg on Meta’s stablecoin plansUS banking groups have raised similar concerns about stablecoins with Congress and have pushed for a Senate crypto market structure bill to include a ban on third-party platforms, such as crypto exchanges, offering yield payments on stablecoins.Crypto and banking groups failed to come to an agreement on the ban after months of negotiations, and the latest version of the bill, released earlier this month, prohibits stablecoin rewards on idle balances while allowing crypto platforms to “offer other forms of customer rewards.”The Senate Banking Committee, which indefinitely postponed a vote on advancing the bill in January, has scheduled a markup of the bill on Thursday.Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026

US prosecutors said they have secured eight sentences in the last five months against people acting as US-based proxies for North Korea-based IT workers, shedding new light on how they have been able to infiltrate US companies. Two men have been sentenced this month alone. The Justice Department said Wednesday that separate courts sentenced Nashville resident Matthew Issac Knoot and New York resident Erick Ntekereze Prince for helping North Koreans work remotely for US companies.The US perpetrators, known as “laptop farmers,” acted as recipients for laptops that US companies would send to new employees. They installed remote desktop software on the devices, allowing North Korean IT workers to use them remotely while appearing to work from the US.North Korea’s remote worker scheme generates revenue for the government and has targeted technical roles at crypto companies to gain access to internal systems, company assets and security infrastructure. Such access can help workers understand company infrastructure and identify systems that could later be exploited.Source: FBI Cyber DivisionProsecutors said Knoot, who was sentenced on May 1, and Prince, sentenced on Wednesday, each received 18 months in prison. Prince was ordered to forfeit $89,000, the amount the North Korean workers paid him for the scheme, while Knoot was ordered to pay $15,100 in restitution to the companies and to forfeit an additional $15,100, the amount he earned from the scheme.Together, the Justice Department said the pair generated $1.2 million in revenue for North Korea, and the scheme affected nearly 70 US companies.Related: North Korea tied to heists worth $578M in April after Kelp DAO exploitLast month, New Jersey residents Kejia Wang and Zhenxing Wang were given nine years in prison and seven years, eight months in prison, respectively, for hosting laptop farms for North Korea.Prosecutors in that case said the scheme lasted multiple years, used the stolen identities of 80 people in the US and made over $5 million for the North Korean government.According to a report by CrowdStrike in August, the number of companies that hired North Korean workers over the previous 12 months jumped 220%, with workers infiltrating more than 320 companies over that period.The report noted that North Korean workers were heavily using artificial intelligence to automate and optimize the process of applying for and working in remote jobs.The US charged four North Koreans in June last year, accusing them of stealing more than $900,000 in crypto after using fake identities to gain remote employment at an Atlanta-based blockchain research and development company and a Serbian crypto company.Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Coinbase shares slid Thursday after the US crypto exchange reported a steep first-quarter loss while revenue missed Wall Street expectations.Coinbase reported a net loss of $394.1 million in Q1, its second consecutive quarterly loss after reporting a $667 million loss in Q4 2025. It swung from a $65.6 million profit a year earlier. “Macro conditions were genuinely tough,” Coinbase chief financial officer Alesia Haas told investors on an earnings call. “Total crypto market cap and total crypto trading volume were both down more than 20% quarter-over-quarter.”Coinbase’s earnings come as other crypto companies have also struggled to turn a profit in the first months of 2026 as a crypto market slump pushed some traders to other investments.Meanwhile, Coinbase’s Q1 revenue was $1.41 billion, missing analyst estimates of $1.5 billion. Transaction revenue slumped 40%, while subscription and services revenue — representing its business outside trading — fell 13.5% from a year earlier. Its earnings per share were a $1.49 loss, compared to analysts’ expectations of 36 cents per share, which saw Coinbase dropping by 4.7% after hours on Thursday to under $184.Coinbase shares fell in regular and after-hours trading on Thursday amid the company’s first-quarter earnings. Source: Google FinanceCoinbase’s stock has fallen more than 14.5% this year, prompting the exchange to pursue new business lines such as prediction markets and cost-cutting measures, including laying off 14% of its workforce, or about 700 employees, on Monday.Despite the company’s earnings, CEO Brian Armstrong struck an optimistic tone on the earnings call, telling investors that “the world economy is moving on-chain, and Coinbase was built to capitalize on this transition.”He added that over the past year, Coinbase has aimed to transition from “a primarily spot-focused crypto platform into a place where you can now trade any asset class.”“We’re in kind of this interim period where spot crypto assets were down a bit, other asset classes were up. As we diversify, these things will get balanced out, where we’ll just be in a more upward channel over time,” Armstrong added.Related: Block Inc rises 8% as Q1 gives ‘earnings surprise’ despite Bitcoin dipCoinbase rival Robinhood Markets also missed estimates for the first quarter last month as its crypto revenue and trading volumes nearly halved from a year earlier.Bernstein said in March that the decline in crypto stocks presented a more attractive entry point for investors seeking exposure to the current hot theme of tokenization and maintained a bullish rating on Coinbase and Robinhood.It argued that the companies offered investors exposure to a broader shift toward tokenized finance, including stablecoins and prediction markets, which it expected to gain traction in the coming years.Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

American Bitcoin, the crypto mining company co-founded by US President Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump, reported an $81.7 million first-quarter loss as its revenue missed analyst estimates.American Bitcoin on Wednesday reported revenue of $62.1 million for the quarter ended March 31, a 400% increase from $12.3 million in the prior-year period but down from $78.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2025.The revenue figures fell short of analyst estimates by 17%, while the firm, which also counts Donald Trump Jr. as a shareholder, reported a quarterly loss of 8 cents per share, compared with Wall Street estimates of 1 cent per share.American Bitcoin is one of the newest crypto mining companies in the industry, which started trading on the Nasdaq in September after merging with Gryphon Digital Mining. It is one part of the Trump family’s sprawling interests in crypto businesses, which also includes the trading platform World Liberty Financial and its stablecoin, USD1.Shares of American Bitcoin (ABTC) ended after-hours trading down 1.6% on Wednesday at $1.23, erasing the 1.6% gain they made during the regular session.American Bitcoin’s share price was choppy on Wednesday following the company’s first-quarter results. Source: Google FinanceThe company’s stock has fallen nearly 26.5% so far this year amid a challenging environment for Bitcoin miners, as the cryptocurrency fell from a 2026 high of $97,000 in January, which it has struggled to regain. Bitcoin was recently trading at $81,000, according to CoinGecko.American Bitcoin’s first-quarter loss narrowed from its $100.6 million loss a year ago. It reported that it mined a record 817 Bitcoin in the first quarter, compared to 783 Bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2025.Related: Trump-linked American Bitcoin energizes 11,298 new ASICsThe company said in a statement that its cost of mining was $36,200 per Bitcoin in the first quarter, a 23% improvement from $46,900 per Bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2025, due to “higher production volume spread across a stable fixed-cost base and continued energy pricing discipline.”American Bitcoin said in March that it added 11,298 mining machines to its fleet, bringing about 3.05 exahashes per second (EH/s) to its operations. The first of the machines was energized on March 31.“We continue to prioritize fleet efficiency, cost discipline, and capital allocation accretive to Bitcoin per share,” American Bitcoin CEO Mike Ho said. “Looking ahead, we will keep deploying incremental capacity when expected returns justify it and focus on compounding our Bitcoin reserve while preserving balance sheet flexibility.”The results came on the same day that Hut 8 reported the first quarter 2026 net loss of more than $253 million, due mainly to a reduction in the market value of its Bitcoin holdings.Revenue for the quarter totaled more than $71 million, down by about 22% from the previous period’s $88.4 million, up from analyst forecasts. Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questionsCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.