Lummis Slams Dimon Over Clarity Act, Revolut US Adds Stablecoins, Kraken Opens IPO Access

Crypto News

Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets Chair Cynthia Lummis publicly rebuked JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon this week, calling his attacks on Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong "distasteful" and accusing the banking executive of either failing to read the Clarity Act or deliberately misrepresenting it. Dimon had argued the market structure bill lets crypto firms pay interest on deposits without proper safeguards and neglects Anti-Money Laundering and Bank Secrecy Act obligations. Lummis countered that both frameworks already apply to digital assets under the legislation, framing the bank lobby's resistance as a defensive posture against stablecoin competition and broader blockchain adoption rather than a substantive policy critique.

Revolut's newly chartered United States banking arm intends to pair FDIC-insured products with stablecoin services, US Chief Executive Cetin Duransoy confirmed this week. The London-based fintech plans high-yield investment and checking accounts, access to ATM networks, and no physical branches, with stablecoin rails layered alongside traditional offerings. Revolut filed its Office of the Comptroller of the Currency application in March after abandoning a lender acquisition, joining a wave of charter requests as US regulators warm to digital assets. The firm previously tapped Polygon for remittances and POL staking, and was selected by the FCA for a sterling stablecoin sandbox.

A new political action committee dedicated exclusively to protecting software developers entered the policy arena Wednesday, backed by leadership from the DeFi Education Fund, the Solana Policy Institute and Uniswap Labs. The Defend Developers PAC will support candidates who champion non-custodial developer protections, decentralized infrastructure and permissionless code. Its formation reflects industry frustration that late-stage compromises stripped Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act language from Section 301 of the Clarity Act, weakening shields against Bank Secrecy Act sanctions exposure. With midterm elections approaching, the PAC joins the Blockchain Leadership Fund and a growing roster of crypto-aligned vehicles funneling capital toward legislators willing to defend open-source DeFi builders from enforcement actions.

IREN shares climbed more than 4% in pre-market trading after the AI infrastructure firm unveiled an 800-megawatt data center campus in South Australia, its first major project on the continent. The company secured a high-voltage grid connection capable of supporting the full 800MW load without requiring network upgrades, with initial energization targeted for 2028 subject to regulatory clearance. The site benefits from submarine fiber connectivity to Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, and aligns with South Australia's drive toward 100% net renewable energy by 2027. Co-Chief Executive Daniel Roberts emphasized the firm's strategy of owning power, land and data center capacity outright as the buildout creates 500 construction jobs.

The Clarity Act now faces an arithmetic obstacle in the Senate, with roughly eight weeks of floor time remaining before lawmakers break for the summer recess and midterm campaigning. Although the market structure bill has been formally offered for the calendar, several procedural steps cannot begin until interparty disputes are resolved, and the chamber is simultaneously juggling a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act extension, an immigration-enforcement funding fight and ongoing debate over a temporary central bank digital currency ban. Even with bipartisan support for tailored crypto rules, lobbyists face stiff competition for floor time, and any further delay risks pushing the legislation into a politically hostile post-election window.

The United Kingdom House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee urged the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority to soften proposed stablecoin rules, warning that Britain is falling behind the United States and the European Union. The committee criticized the central bank's proposal requiring systemic sterling stablecoin issuers to hold at least 40% of reserves in unremunerated central bank deposits, called for scrapping pre-emptive holding caps of £20,000 for individuals and £10 million for businesses, and pushed back on Prudential Regulation Authority restrictions on commercial bank issuance. The report also questioned the FCA's volume-based k-factor capital requirement as a poor proxy for actual issuer risk.

The dominant arc binding this week's developments is the global regulatory contest to define how crypto integrates with mainstream finance. From Washington's bruising fight over the Clarity Act and bank lobby resistance, to London's Lords pressing for looser stablecoin rules, to Revolut and Kraken pushing tokenized banking and IPO access into retail hands, jurisdictions are racing to set the terms of engagement. Developer-protection PACs and infrastructure buildouts like IREN's Australian campus underscore that policy clarity and physical compute capacity are now equally strategic. The cycle's narrative is no longer adoption versus prohibition, but which framework attracts capital, talent and the next wave of Bitcoin-aligned innovation.