CLARITY Act Revival Push, BitMine's 5% Ether Cap, and Abstract Shutdown: Crypto Today

House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill is pressing Congress to revive the CLARITY Act during the post-midterm lame-duck session, arguing that recent regulatory moves by the SEC and CFTC cannot substitute for formal legislation. The Senate failed to advance the crypto market structure bill last month, leaving both agencies to address digital asset oversight using their existing authority. The CFTC has since updated guidance on tokenized assets and blockchain-based recordkeeping, while the SEC revised how federal securities laws apply to certain crypto transactions. Hill said those efforts "fall short" due to their lack of permanence, though the window for legislative action is narrow — the Senate is expected to have just 22 session days between the November elections and January. Both agencies are also operating with seven commissioner vacancies between them.

BitMine Immersion Technologies will impose a hard cap of 5% on its Ether holdings, Chairman Tom Lee announced during a keynote at Token2049 in Singapore. The company has accumulated roughly 6 million ETH — about 4.9% of total supply — and needs only around 100,000 more tokens to reach its target. "That's a hard cap. We're not gonna be accumulating past 5%," Lee said, signaling a firm ceiling on the firm's Ethereum exposure. Lee had previously left the door open to exceeding that threshold depending on Ethereum adoption, telling Bankless in August the company may revisit the question in 2027. The announcement positions BitMine as one of the largest institutional holders of Ether globally.

Abstract, the Pudgy Penguins-backed Ethereum layer-2 network, is shutting down after burning through tens of millions of dollars without finding product-market fit. The consumer-focused chain had aimed to capture mainstream users through NFT integrations and social features, but failed to retain enough activity to justify continued investment. The closure highlights the ongoing struggle of consumer-oriented L2s to compete with established players like Base and Arbitrum. Pudgy Penguins' broader brand, including its separate toy and IP licensing business, remains unaffected by the shutdown.