[News Brief] May 9, morning | U.S. Senate Banking Committee to Vote on Crypto Clarity Bill on May 14

U.S. Senate Banking Committee to Vote on Crypto Clarity Bill on May 14

Watcher.Guru reported that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a vote on the crypto Clarity Bill for 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on May 14.

The bill is designed to clarify regulatory standards for the cryptocurrency market in the United States, and the industry believes the outcome of the vote could affect future discussions on the institutionalization of digital assets.

U.S. Senate Reaches Compromise on Stablecoin Yield Issue, Reviving Expectations for Crypto Market Structure Bill

Odaily reported that expectations for the passage of a digital asset market structure bill have risen again after the U.S. Senate reached a compromise on the issue of stablecoin yield.

Industry sources said this progress has noticeably improved market sentiment, and they believe the Senate Banking Committee may move forward with reviewing and voting on the bill next week.

The likelihood of passage had previously been estimated at around 20% to 30%, but has now reportedly risen to about 60%.

However, ethical concerns surrounding President Trump and his connections to crypto-related businesses remain a variable for final passage.

The bill would establish the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for digital assets and divide oversight authority between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

More Than 12 Crypto and Fintech Firms, Including Coinbase, Ripple, and Circle, Apply for or Obtain OCC National Trust Bank Licenses

PANews, citing Cryptopolitan, reported that more than 12 crypto and fintech firms — including Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Morgan Stanley, and Fidelity Digital Assets — have either applied for or obtained national trust bank licenses from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

Payward, Kraken’s parent company, has also submitted an application to establish Payward National Trust in order to provide crypto custody and trust services to institutional and retail clients.

The OCC said that the entry of new companies into the federal banking sector could benefit consumers, the banking industry, and the broader economy. A national trust bank license would allow firms to operate assets under a single federal regulatory framework, reducing reliance on external banking partners.

However, most companies remain only at the conditional approval stage. Anchorage Digital Bank is reportedly the only national trust bank currently in full operation.

A remaining issue is access to the Federal Reserve’s payments infrastructure. Federal Reserve governors said they are reviewing ways to simplify account structures, but an official detailed framework has not yet been established.

BlackRock Plans to Launch Two Tokenized Money Market Funds for Stablecoin Holders

BlackRock plans to launch two tokenized money market funds aimed at stablecoin holders rather than traditional bank account customers, according to PANews, citing Bloomberg.

According to the report, BlackRock plans to issue a digital share class of the BlackRock Select Treasury Liquidity Fund on the Ethereum blockchain. The fund invests in cash and securities with maturities of 93 days or less, including U.S. Treasuries.

Another product, the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Fund, is intended for investors who manage assets through crypto wallets and stablecoins, and is expected to be launched across multiple blockchains.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has previously stated on several occasions that all financial assets will eventually be tokenized. BUIDL, the fund BlackRock launched in 2024, currently manages approximately $2.5 billion in assets.

SEC Reviews New Rules for On-Chain Financial Markets and Software Applications

Odaily reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reviewing new rules that would apply to on-chain financial markets and related software applications.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said that software protocols such as DeFi are difficult to clearly categorize under the existing regulatory framework as exchanges, brokers, or clearing agencies. He explained that a single protocol can simultaneously perform trade execution, collateral management, liquidity routing, and settlement functions.

These remarks were seen as a sign that the SEC is taking a more open stance toward the crypto industry. The SEC is also reviewing exemptions for tokenized securities and greater clarity in the classification of digital assets.

Coinbase Service Outage Caused by AWS Data Center Cooling Failure, CEO Says Incident Was “Unacceptable”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote on X that the service outage that occurred the previous day was “unacceptable” and said the company would reassess architectural trade-offs to significantly reduce downtime in the future.

Armstrong said the root cause of the incident was multiple cooling unit failures at an AWS data center, which caused one facility to overheat. He explained that while most Coinbase systems are redundantly designed to withstand a single availability zone failure, it is difficult for a centralized exchange to fully absorb such failures while maintaining low-latency trading and customer colocation.

He added that the company would review the system architecture to reduce service interruption time when failover between availability zones is required. Coinbase and AWS teams reportedly worked overnight to restore services. Coinbase said it will release a more detailed technical explanation later.

North Korea’s Lazarus Exploits GitHub Pre-Commit Scripts in Malicious Campaign Targeting Developers

PANews, citing research by OpenSourceMalware, reported that North Korean hacking group Lazarus exploited GitHub pre-commit scripts in a malicious campaign targeting developers.

The attack masqueraded as part of a recruitment process in the crypto and DeFi sector, tricking developers into cloning malicious repositories. A second-stage loader was then used to steal crypto assets and account information.

Researchers advised developers to remain cautious if they are asked to clone code repositories during job interviews, and to avoid using personal browser settings, SSH keys, or crypto wallets while executing such code, instead using an isolated environment.

LayerZero Labs Says It Faced Lazarus Attacks Over the Past Three Weeks, Shifts to Multi-DVN Configuration

According to Odaily, LayerZero Labs said its internal RPC had been attacked by the Lazarus Group over the past three weeks, resulting in compromise of the true source of its Decentralized Verifier Network (DVN), while external RPC providers were also hit by DDoS attacks.

The incident is believed to have affected 0.14% of applications and approximately 0.36% of asset value. LayerZero Labs said assets remain safe, and that more than $9 billion has been processed cross-chain through the protocol since April 19.

To strengthen security, LayerZero Labs said it will discontinue 1/1 DVN services and shift default routing to at least 3/3 or 5/5 multi-DVN configurations. Regarding a past case involving improper hardware wallet use by multisig signers, the company said it had removed the signer, replaced wallets, and developed a custom multisig system called OneSig.

Tether Files Lawsuit Against Brazil’s Titan Holdings to Recover $300 Million in Defaulted Loans

Tether has filed a lawsuit against Brazil’s Titan Holdings to recover $300 million in defaulted loans.

According to PANews, citing Bitcoin.com, Tether Investments, an investment subsidiary of Tether, extended a 12-month loan to Titan Holdings in March 2025, but claims repayment was not made after the maturity date of March 28, 2026.

Tether has asked a court in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to freeze the bank accounts, financial investments, and other assets of Titan Holdings, Master Holding, and other defendants.

Tether said the loan was not part of the reserves backing USDT issuance, but rather part of a separate lending portfolio. Banco Master was liquidated in November last year after Brazil’s central bank identified a $2.2 billion reserve shortfall.

Spanish Coffee Chain Vanadi Faces Losses and Funding Stress One Year After Switching to a Bitcoin Treasury Model

Spanish coffee chain Vanadi is facing losses and funding difficulties one year after shifting to a Bitcoin treasury model, according to PANews, citing Criptonoticias.

Vanadi said it switched to a Bitcoin treasury model in 2025 and currently holds 213 BTC, but reported a $7.8 million loss in the same year. To secure working capital, the company issued convertible bonds and converted them into shares at a 5% discount to market price, causing the stock to fall 74% this year and raising dilution concerns through the issuance of 98.1 million new shares.

The company is facing an urgent funding gap of 1.4 million euros and is expected to need an additional 65 million euros over the coming months. Of its Bitcoin holdings, 130.18 BTC has been pledged as collateral on the Spanish exchange Bit2Me, making it difficult for the company to use immediately.

Analysts are questioning the sustainability of corporate treasury models based on Bitcoin holdings when cash flow remains insufficient.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs Record $146 Million in Net Outflows on May 8

According to SoSoValue data, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net outflows of $146 million on May 8, Eastern Time.

The largest net outflow came from Fidelity’s FBTC, which saw $97.6041 million leave the fund. FBTC’s cumulative net inflows stand at $11.134 billion.

During the same period, the largest net inflow was recorded by Morgan Stanley’s ETF MSBT, which received $5.7385 million. MSBT’s cumulative net inflows stand at $194 million.

As of the time of reporting, the total net assets of spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at $106.611 billion, representing 6.67% of Bitcoin’s total market capitalization. Cumulative net inflows were $59.34 billion.