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Door Remote - 07 Oct 2026
Today in crypto, House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill pushed for another attempt to pass the CLARITY Act this year, BitMine set a 5% hard cap on its share of the Ether supply and Pudgy Penguins-backed Abstract announced plans to shut down after losing tens of millions of dollars without finding product-market fit.
Hill pushes for CLARITY Act revival as SEC, CFTC move ahead on crypto rulesHouse Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill is pushing Congress to revive the CLARITY Act this year, arguing that recent crypto actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) cannot replace legislation.
Hill said Wednesday that he remains hopeful lawmakers can pass the crypto market structure bill during the lame-duck session following November’s midterm elections. The Senate failed to advance the legislation last month, leaving the SEC and CFTC to address crypto oversight using their existing authority.
Both regulators have since moved ahead. The CFTC updated guidance covering tokenized assets and blockchain-based recordkeeping, while the SEC revised its guidance on how federal securities laws apply to certain crypto assets and transactions. The agencies have also signaled further rulemaking.
Hill said those efforts “fall short” because they lack the permanence of a law passed by Congress.
The window is narrow. The Senate is expected to have just 22 session days between the November elections and the start of the next Congress in January. The SEC and CFTC are also operating with seven commissioner vacancies.
BitMine sets 5% Ether supply ‘hard cap’ as accumulation target nearsBitmine Immersion Technologies will cap its Ether holdings at 5% of the cryptocurrency’s supply, according to Chairman Tom Lee.
Speaking during a keynote at Token2049 in Singapore on Wednesday, Lee said Bitmine is nearing the threshold after accumulating roughly 6 million Ether, equivalent to about 4.9% of the supply. He said the company needs about 100,000 ETH more to reach its target.
“That’s a hard cap. We’re not gonna be accumulating past 5%,” Lee said. “We’re not gonna own more than 5% of Ethereum.”
Lee had previously left open the possibility of accumulating more than 5% of Ether’s supply depending on Ethereum adoption. In an August interview with Bankless, he said the company may revisit that possibility in 2027.
Pudgy Penguins-backed Abstract to shut down after “tens of millions” in lossesAbstract, a consumer-focused Ethereum layer-2 blockchain built by Pudgy Penguins’ parent company Igloo Inc., said Tuesday it will shut down this year after struggling to scale and find product-market fit.
In an X post, Abstract said its focus on “consumer crypto” ultimately proved to be an unsustainable business model. Abstract launched its mainnet in January 2025 with the aim of driving consumer crypto adoption by targeting mainstream entertainment. For users, it aimed to strip away many of the complexities that traditional blockchains require.
“Unknown to most, Igloo, Inc. had been funding Abstract over the last 18 months,” said Luca Netz, CEO of Igloo Inc. “After losing tens of millions of dollars over two years, building consumer products, assembling an all-star team, onboarding some of the biggest brands in the world, and building a community of millions, we still had not found product-market fit.”
Abstract’s shutdown highlights the limits of its consumer-first strategy. Both Abstract and Netz cited minimal institutional crossover, alongside thin liquidity and a restricted DeFi ecosystem, as constraints on growth.
Hill pushes for CLARITY Act revival as SEC, CFTC move ahead on crypto rulesHouse Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill is pushing Congress to revive the CLARITY Act this year, arguing that recent crypto actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) cannot replace legislation.
Hill said Wednesday that he remains hopeful lawmakers can pass the crypto market structure bill during the lame-duck session following November’s midterm elections. The Senate failed to advance the legislation last month, leaving the SEC and CFTC to address crypto oversight using their existing authority.
Both regulators have since moved ahead. The CFTC updated guidance covering tokenized assets and blockchain-based recordkeeping, while the SEC revised its guidance on how federal securities laws apply to certain crypto assets and transactions. The agencies have also signaled further rulemaking.
Hill said those efforts “fall short” because they lack the permanence of a law passed by Congress.
The window is narrow. The Senate is expected to have just 22 session days between the November elections and the start of the next Congress in January. The SEC and CFTC are also operating with seven commissioner vacancies.
BitMine sets 5% Ether supply ‘hard cap’ as accumulation target nearsBitmine Immersion Technologies will cap its Ether holdings at 5% of the cryptocurrency’s supply, according to Chairman Tom Lee.
Speaking during a keynote at Token2049 in Singapore on Wednesday, Lee said Bitmine is nearing the threshold after accumulating roughly 6 million Ether, equivalent to about 4.9% of the supply. He said the company needs about 100,000 ETH more to reach its target.
“That’s a hard cap. We’re not gonna be accumulating past 5%,” Lee said. “We’re not gonna own more than 5% of Ethereum.”
Lee had previously left open the possibility of accumulating more than 5% of Ether’s supply depending on Ethereum adoption. In an August interview with Bankless, he said the company may revisit that possibility in 2027.
Pudgy Penguins-backed Abstract to shut down after “tens of millions” in lossesAbstract, a consumer-focused Ethereum layer-2 blockchain built by Pudgy Penguins’ parent company Igloo Inc., said Tuesday it will shut down this year after struggling to scale and find product-market fit.
In an X post, Abstract said its focus on “consumer crypto” ultimately proved to be an unsustainable business model. Abstract launched its mainnet in January 2025 with the aim of driving consumer crypto adoption by targeting mainstream entertainment. For users, it aimed to strip away many of the complexities that traditional blockchains require.
“Unknown to most, Igloo, Inc. had been funding Abstract over the last 18 months,” said Luca Netz, CEO of Igloo Inc. “After losing tens of millions of dollars over two years, building consumer products, assembling an all-star team, onboarding some of the biggest brands in the world, and building a community of millions, we still had not found product-market fit.”
Abstract’s shutdown highlights the limits of its consumer-first strategy. Both Abstract and Netz cited minimal institutional crossover, alongside thin liquidity and a restricted DeFi ecosystem, as constraints on growth.