Senate Confirms Warsh as Fed Chair, CLARITY Act Heads to Vote, Polymarket Volume Drops 8.9%

Crypto News

Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong has thrown his weight behind the latest draft of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, describing the legislation as being in its strongest and most bipartisan form to date. Speaking ahead of Thursday's Senate Banking Committee markup, Armstrong said the banking sector and the crypto industry had reached a workable compromise on stablecoin yield, a sticking point that derailed earlier negotiations in January 2025. The revised text also tightens provisions for DeFi, tokenized equities, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's authority. Industry surveys cited during the lobbying push indicate roughly one in five Americans now hold digital assets, with 52% of polled voters supporting passage.

The US Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday in a 54-45 cloture vote that fell largely along party lines, with Democratic Senator John Fetterman the only crossover. Warsh was approved as a Fed governor the previous day in a 51-45 tally, securing a 14-year term on the board and a four-year term leading the central bank. He succeeds Jerome Powell, whose chairmanship ends Friday after months of public pressure from President Donald Trump. Warsh previously served on the Fed board between 2006 and 2011 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Warsh's elevation has been welcomed by crypto-aligned lawmakers, with Senator Cynthia Lummis declaring that digital asset holders finally have a sympathetic voice atop the central bank. The incoming chair has previously described Bitcoin as a transformative technology and disclosed personal investments in projects including Polymarket and Solana, although he has also criticized portions of the sector as fraudulent. Bitcoin held near $79,500 immediately after the confirmation, signaling that markets had already priced in the leadership change. Democratic senators questioned his ability to remain independent of White House policy during his Banking Committee hearing.

Dozens of last-minute amendments have been filed against the CLARITY Act in the hours before Thursday's Senate Banking Committee vote, broadening the bill's scope well beyond digital asset oversight. Senator Jack Reed reintroduced banking-industry language on stablecoin yield that would force committee members to take a public position on rewards programs. Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed blocking banking approvals for institutions tied to the president, vice president, or members of Congress, while Senator Tina Smith offered language barring federal bailouts of crypto firms. Other amendments cover housing policy, credit card fees, and even the release of records connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

Polymarket recorded its first month-over-month decline in trading volume since August, with April activity falling roughly 8.9% to $10.2 billion across its global and US platforms. Rival Kalshi moved in the opposite direction, posting a 13% jump to $14.8 billion as overall prediction market volume climbed 12.4% to $29.8 billion. The slowdown lands as Polymarket attempts to fully re-enter the US market after a 2022 CFTC settlement, while new entrants including AI-native platform Prophet and a MoonPay strategy tool intensify competition. Lawmakers continue to scrutinize insider trading risks in markets tied to war, energy, and geopolitical events.

Former Celsius chief revenue officer Roni Cohen-Pavon will forfeit more than $1.07 million ahead of his sentencing on Thursday in the Southern District of New York, according to a filing from US Attorney Jay Clayton. The figure represents proceeds traceable to his role in manipulating the CEL token, an offense he pleaded guilty to in September 2023. Prosecutors stopped short of recommending a specific term, instead citing his cooperation against former Celsius chief executive Alex Mashinsky, who was sentenced to 12 years in May 2025 and ordered to forfeit $48 million. Separately, Judge Lewis Kaplan added $10 million to Sam Bankman-Fried's outstanding forfeiture judgment.

Taken together, this week's events reveal a market structure being rebuilt on multiple fronts at once. Regulatory architecture is moving from negotiation to legislation as the CLARITY Act approaches a committee vote, while monetary leadership shifts toward a chair openly receptive to digital assets. Enforcement continues to close the chapter on the 2022 collapse cycle through forfeitures against Celsius and FTX executives, even as new battlegrounds emerge in prediction markets and on-chain credit. The dominant narrative of this cycle is institutional integration under tighter but clearer rules, with policy clarity replacing the regulatory ambiguity that defined the prior bear market and reshaping how a maturing blockchain economy interfaces with traditional finance.