Today in crypto, Coinbase’s lobby arm has urged lawmakers to expedite the CLARITY Act, which shifts crypto regulatory jurisdiction to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A US court has ended Coin Center’s appeal against the Treasury Department over Tornado Cash and memecoin launcher LetsBonk, doubled Pump. fun’s daily revenue with $1.04 million on Monday.
Coinbase crypto lobby urges Congress to back major crypto bill
Coinbase’s lobbying arm, along with 65 crypto firms, has urged US House lawmakers to pass a major bill when they meet next week that would lay out how the crypto industry is regulated.
In a letter sent on Monday, Stand With Crypto and 65 crypto advocacy groups and firms asked House lawmakers to back the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — better known as the CLARITY Act.
“We know that there have been efforts to politicize crypto legislation, but with crypto drastically reshaping the global economy the U.S. risks falling behind unless we adopt pro-crypto policies that fully embrace blockchain technology,” it said.
The CLARITY Act specifies the roles of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission in policing crypto. It gives most of the jurisdiction over crypto to the CFTC, but the SEC would regulate products such as crypto-related securities.
Court ends Coin Center-US Treasury appeal over Tornado Cash
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has dismissed an appeal filed by crypto advocacy organization Coin Center against the US Treasury Department over its Office of Foreign Assets Control’s 2022 sanctions against the Tornado Cash mixing service.
In a Thursday filing, the appellate court granted a motion to vacate a lower court ruling and remand with instructions to dismiss as part of a joint filing with Coin Center and the US Treasury. The dismissal, according to the court, would essentially conclude Coin Center’s legal challenge against the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
In 2022, OFAC added multiple wallet addresses connected to Tornado Cash to its list of sanctioned entities. Coin Center filed a lawsuit alleging that the Treasury Department “exceeded [its] statutory authority” in the sanctions, though there were other lawsuits filed by interested parties, including one from six Tornado Cash users backed by crypto exchange Coinbase.
The price of Tornado Cash’s native token (TORN) briefly surged by more than 14% to $10.55 on the news on Monday, before retracing to trade at $9.47 at the time of publication.
“This is the official end to our court battle over the statutory authority behind the [Tornado Cash] sanctions,” said Coin Center executive director Peter Van Valkenburgh in a Monday X post. “The government was not interested in moving forward and defending their dangerously overbroad interpretation of sanctions laws.”
LetsBonk flips PumpFun in 24-hour revenue: DefiLlama
Solana memecoin launchpad LetsBonk surpassed rival Pump.fun in 24-hour revenue, according to data aggregated by decentralized finance (DeFi) platform DefiLlama.
The latest DefiLlama figures show that LetsBonk generated $1.04 million in revenue in the last 24 hours, nearly doubling Pump.fun’s revenue of $533,412. LetsBonk’s revenue surge marked a rare shift in dominance in the Solana memecoin sector, where Pump.fun has typically held the top spot.
Both platforms offer simplified tools for launching and trading memecoins. However, LetsBonk appears to be gaining traction due to the support of the Bonk (BONK) memecoin community and its social campaigns.
BONK is one of the most popular Solana-based memecoins, with more than 430,000 followers on X. CoinGecko shows that the memecoin has a market capitalization of nearly $1.8 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $1.2 billion, making it the No. 58 crypto token by market capitalization.
The LetsBonk memecoin launchpad was released on April 25. Its team dubbed the protocol a “self-serving launchpad for memecoins” and aims to address what its developers say are predatory practices in the space.
