US Senator Cynthia Lummis submitted a draft invoice on Thursday proposing to exempt sure crypto transactions from taxation and defer taxes on mining and staking rewards till the underlying tokens are offered.
“My laws ensures Individuals can take part within the digital financial system with out inadvertent tax violations,” mentioned Lummis.
The senator’s draft invoice was printed three weeks after the Guiding and Establishing Nationwide Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, handed the Senate in a 68–30 vote on June 11, Cointelegraph reported.
The GENIUS Act might “legitimize” stablecoins for institutional members by setting clear collateralization requirements, cementing them as a “higher type of cash,” mentioned Andrei Grachev, managing accomplice at DWF Labs and Falcon Finance.
The rising US regulatory readability might allow extra conventional finance gamers to hunt out decentralized monetary providers, as a result of their disappointment with conventional banking providers, in accordance with Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov.
“Because of horrible banking experiences, we’ve seen a variety of finance coming into fintech, and fintech functions capable of seize a variety of market share,” Kulechov mentioned onstage at EthCC 2025.
Past decentralized finance (DeFi), the tokenization of real-world belongings is a “multi-trillion-dollar alternative” for the crypto sector to have interaction with conventional finance, added Kulechov.
Within the wider crypto area, Chainlink, a decentralized blockchain oracle community for crosschain communication, launched a brand new compliance framework aimed toward unlocking over $100 trillion price of institutional capital for the crypto market.
“Chainlink ACE is the compliance and identification normal the tokenized asset financial system has been ready for, with at this time’s launch offering a remaining important constructing block for over $100 trillion in institutional capital to maneuver onchain,” mentioned Sergey Nazarov, the co-founder of Chainlink.
US Senator Cynthia Lummis drafts standalone crypto tax invoice
US Senator Cynthia Lummis submitted a draft invoice on Thursday, outlining a number of provisions to overtake the tax code and exempt sure digital asset transactions from taxation after crypto amendments failed to look within the funds package deal.
The invoice proposes a de minimis exemption for digital asset transactions and capital positive factors of $300 or much less, with a $5,000 annual exemption cap.
The Wyoming Senator additionally outlined provisions to exempt crypto lending agreements and digital belongings utilized in charitable contributions from taxation. Moreover, the invoice proposed deferring taxes on mining and staking rewards till the underlying belongings are offered. Lummis mentioned:
“This groundbreaking laws is totally paid for, cuts via the bureaucratic crimson tape, and establishes common sense guidelines that mirror how digital applied sciences operate in the true world. We can not permit our archaic tax insurance policies to stifle American innovation.
“My laws ensures Individuals can take part within the digital financial system with out inadvertent tax violations,” she added.
The standalone draft invoice is now the Wyoming senator’s finest likelihood of passing the pro-crypto laws promised to the crypto group after the Senator handed the spending invoice with out addressing digital belongings.
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$250 million Ondo Catalyst fund indicators “arms race” for RWA tokenization
DeFi protocol Ondo Finance and enterprise agency Pantera Capital plan to ramp up investments in real-world belongings (RWAs), highlighting the trade’s rising deal with tokenization amid favorable regulatory developments in the USA.
Each firms knowledgeable Axios that they plan to take a position $250 million in RWAs via a brand new fund referred to as Ondo Catalyst. Ondo’s chief technique officer, Ian De Bode, mentioned the funds might be invested to amass fairness stakes and tokens in rising tasks.
“We’re seeing a little bit of an arms race proper now” within the tokenization market, De Bode informed Axios, referring to the surge of firms getting into the area. Exchanges particularly are zeroing in on tokenized shares and exchange-traded fund (ETF) choices.
As Cointelegraph not too long ago reported, digital brokerage agency Robinhood has launched a brand new layer-2 blockchain to allow European purchasers to commerce tokenized US shares and ETFs.
In Could, Kraken introduced plans to supply tokenized US inventory buying and selling to traders outdoors the USA.
In the meantime, crypto trade Coinbase is reportedly pursuing regulatory approval to supply tokenized equities, a transfer that will assist it compete with Robinhood and different buying and selling platforms.
Ondo Finance has been ramping up its push into onchain finance, not too long ago asserting the formation of a International Markets Alliance with a number of crypto corporations to drive adoption of blockchain-based capital markets. On Thursday, the corporate introduced that OKX Pockets has joined the alliance.
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PancakeSwap doubles quarterly quantity to $530 billion as upgrades enhance progress
PancakeSwap, a multichain decentralized trade (DEX), reported a record-breaking $325 billion in buying and selling quantity for June, the very best month-to-month buying and selling quantity within the platform’s five-year historical past.
The June complete surpassed Could’s $174 billion and pushed PancakeSwap’s second-quarter quantity to $530 billion, greater than doubling the $211 billion recorded within the first quarter, in accordance with information from Dune Analytics.
The surge in exercise follows a collection of current upgrades, together with the April rollout of PancakeSwap Infinity, which launched a number of options designed to enhance consumer expertise and buying and selling effectivity.
The improve launched decrease fuel charges, customizable liquidity swimming pools utilizing “Hooks,” and help for superior liquidity suppliers via CLAMM and LBAMM pool sorts.
Chef Youngsters, head of PancakeSwap, informed Cointelegraph that PancakeSwap Infinity gives key benefits for builders and liquidity suppliers. For builders, the platform permits new pool sorts and customized Hooks to be built-in with out redeploying sensible contracts or launching new variations, which “drastically lowers improvement overhead and accelerates innovation.”
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FATF’s crypto guidelines hints at subsequent regulatory crackdown
Cryptocurrency laws are more and more aligning with international requirements as 73% of eligible jurisdictions have now handed legal guidelines to implement the Monetary Motion Activity Pressure’s (FATF) Journey Rule.
The Journey Rule mandates crypto service suppliers to gather and share customers’ transaction information, just like conventional finance necessities. On June 26, the FATF launched its annual report that outlines how current regulatory strikes by jurisdictions are converging with its international Anti-Cash Laundering (AML) framework.
It is a direct results of a years-long marketing campaign by the FATF to carry cryptocurrencies according to conventional AML and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT) requirements.
The FATF spotlighted stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi) for the second consecutive yr, highlighting their rising use in illicit finance, together with by North Korean actors. The group mentioned it plans to launch focused papers on stablecoins, offshore crypto platforms and DeFi by subsequent summer season, hinting at the place international crypto regulation might head subsequent.
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Crypto losses hit $2.5B in first half of 2025, however hacks fall in Q2: CertiK
Losses to crypto hacks, exploits and scams spiked to $2.47 billion within the first half of 2025, however the second quarter noticed a decline within the complete variety of hacks, mentioned blockchain safety agency CertiK.
Over $800 million was misplaced throughout 144 incidents in Q2, a 52% lower in worth misplaced in contrast with the earlier quarter, with 59 fewer hacking incidents, CertiK mentioned in a report on Tuesday.
In complete, the primary half of 2025 noticed greater than $2.47 billion in losses as a result of hacks, scams and exploits, representing a virtually 3% enhance over the $2.4 billion stolen in 2024.
Nonetheless, contemplating the greater than $187 million returned throughout the yr’s first half, CertiK mentioned the adjusted complete is nearer to $2.2 billion.
Regardless of the spike in losses, CertiK mentioned it doesn’t essentially “counsel a deteriorating safety panorama” as a result of the lion’s share of losses got here from simply two incidents, towards crypto trade Bybit and Cetus Protocol, price $1.78 billion mixed.
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DeFi market overview
In accordance with information from Cointelegraph Markets Professional and TradingView, many of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week within the inexperienced.
The Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) token rose over 66% because the week’s largest gainer, adopted by the Bonk (BONK) memecoin, up almost 25% on the weekly chart.
Thanks for studying our abstract of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Be a part of us subsequent Friday for extra tales, insights and schooling relating to this dynamically advancing area.
