Days after the Senate Banking Committee released its draft language for the 
CLARITY Act, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse delivered a blunt message about the 
road ahead for the delayed crypto market-structure bill. Speaking Tuesday at 
CoinDesk’s Consensus Miami event, Garlinghouse said the next two weeks could 
prove decisive—not just for the momentum of the legislation, but for whether 
it ultimately clears one of the last key procedural hurdle. Ripple CEO Defends 
CLARITY Act Compromise Garlinghouse emphasized that the CLARITY Act passage is 
still not guaranteed. He pointed to the Senate Banking Committee’s long- 
awaited hearing as the immediate turning point. Without that progression, he 
warned, the odds for the broader package would deteriorate quickly. “If it 
doesn’t happen then, I think the likelihood is going to drop precipitously,” 
he said. Even so, he added that he still believes the bill is likely to 
advance. Related Reading: XRP Near $1.40—What Could Spark A Move To $1.70, And 
How The CLARITY Act Fits In The CLARITY Act draft, as previously reported by 
Bitcoinist and echoed across coverage through the weekend, is designed to curb 
certain yield practices in the crypto sector—particularly by restricting how 
crypto firms handle stablecoins used for payments. Under the draft, crypto 
companies would be barred from paying customers “any form of interest or 
yield” simply for holding payment stablecoins. The intent, according to the 
framing around the bill, is to align the treatment of stablecoin holdings with 
how traditional banks handle deposits. At the same time, the bill includes an 
important carve-out. Companies would be allowed to offer incentives or 
rewards, but only if those benefits are not functionally or economically 
comparable to the interest a customer would receive on a bank deposit. That 
distinction—between permissible promotional incentives and incentives that 
could be viewed as effectively equivalent to deposit yield—has been one of the 
most contested negotiation points in the process since the CLARITY Act began 
taking shape. Garlinghouse acknowledged that the outcome does not fully 
satisfy every concern. “Do I think it’s perfect? Hell, no,” he said. He 
described the bill as a product of tradeoffs and compromises, but argued that 
the goal of regulatory “clarity” is still better than leaving the sector to 
operate in uncertainty. The Fight Over What Counts As ‘Yield’ Eleanor Terrett 
of Crypto In America reported on Monday that some in crypto were interpreting 
the CLARITY Act draft as a win for banks, arguing that a broad “no yield” 
approach would give traditional institutions an advantage. However, banks 
appear to be looking at the language differently—some are reportedly worried 
that the compromise may not go far enough to prevent crypto firms from finding 
ways around it. Related Reading: DTCC Tokenized Securities Roadmap: Pilot In 
July, Scale Up In October—With Big Names Like Ripple By Tuesday, Terrett said 
a split is forming in bank circles over the yield compromise itself. Some 
institutions—especially larger banks with consumer-facing operations—are said 
to be taking issue with parts of the final wording. Meanwhile, those without 
similar consumer arms reportedly appear more comfortable with the direction of 
the CLARITY Act compromise. Community banks are also signaling interest, 
though the industry group ICBA has voiced concerns over how the approach may 
affect their perspective and interests. Terrett also relayed the concerns of 
at least one major bank that shares the view held by some negotiators: the 
core problem is that the CLARITY Act language could be drafted too narrowly, 
leaving room for crypto companies to repackage or restructure “yield-like” 
rewards in ways that still resemble bank deposit interest. At the time of 
writing, the price of Ripple&#8217;s associated cryptocurrency, XRP, was $1.41, 
marking a 2.5% increase over the past week. Featured image from OpenArt, chart 
from TradingView.com

Ripple CEO Warns: If CLARITY Act Markup Slips, Chances Fall ‘Precipitously’

CFTC Chair Michael Selig says the agency may codify Phantom-style protections 
for non-custodial crypto software developers.

CFTC may lock in Phantom-style crypto wallet protections

Anchorage’s new product enables AI agents to have compliant access to capital 
across traditional finance and crypto payment rails.

Anchorage launches agentic banking as CEO tips ‘trillion-dollar’ opportunity

The Colombian president pointed to the impact Bitcoin mining has had in 
Paraguay, which is now the fourth-largest Bitcoin mining country by hashrate.

Colombian president says Bitcoin mining could transform country’s Caribbean coast

On-chain detective ZachXBT has shared details of the massive crypto Ponzi 
scheme that took over $150 million from unsuspecting victims before collapsing 
last week. Related Reading: Bitcoin Targets $86,000 After Key EMA Reclaim: Is 
The Next Rally Here? The Mechanics Behind The $150M Crypto Ponzi In a series 
of X posts, ZachXBT unveiled the details of a Ponzi scheme that had been 
operating under the DSJ Exchange (DSJEX), a fake trading platform, and BG 
Wealth Sharing, a fraudulent investment scheme, since 2025. The scam involved 
a fake CEO named Stephen Beard, a self-proclaimed professor who represented 
the platform to the public. According to the Tuesday thread, DSJEX and BG 
Wealth advertised daily returns of 1.3%–2.6%, with referral commissions and 
rank-based bonuses. In addition, Beard pushed recruitment and fake trading 
signals through a group on Hong Kong messaging app BonChat. The Washington 
State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) recently explained that 
investors used these trading signals on the DSJ exchange and were led to 
believe that the crypto investments were generating returns. BG Wealth and DSJ 
claimed to be licensed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but 
the DFI found that neither of the forms filed by these companies indicated 
that they were registered with the SEC. Thirteen regulators across five 
continents had issued public fraud warnings about the firms, including the 
UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and 
Investments Commission (ASIC), the Philippines’ SEC, and Washington’s DFI. On 
April 23, US law enforcement seized one of BG Wealth’s domains as part of a 
joint operation conducted by Operation Level Up and the Scam Center Strike 
Force. However, the scam continued to operate for roughly another week. Last 
Saturday, Beard posted a video affirming that DSJEX would soon go public and 
demanded a 12% “tax” on account balances as a prerequisite for the regulatory 
process. But the scammers had already disabled withdrawals by this point. 
Tether, Exchanges Freeze $41.5M After the US authorities’ involvement, the 
malicious actors laundered over $92 million in crypto assets across chains. 
ZachXBT noted that the scammers regularly rotated between domains and hot 
wallets to evade law enforcement. Between April 27 and May 3, the crypto funds 
were laundered through token swaps, bridging via Bridgers, Butter Network, and 
USDT0, wrapping and unwrapping USDD, and consolidation of transactions across 
hundreds of addresses. The crypto sleuth traced the millions in outflows 
through a timing analysis, located Solana/Tron deposits to Binance, and found 
matching Tron withdrawals. Then, he provided details to the relevant parties, 
including Tether, the Binance security team, OKX, and US law enforcement. As a 
result, Tether froze $38.4 million on May 4, while another $3.1 million was 
frozen at various crypto services and exchanges, bringing the total to $41.5 
million. Related Reading: Why is Crypto Up Today? Bitcoin Price Faces ‘Real 
Test’ At This Key Level Despite the significant recovery, the on-chain 
detective noted that the scam’s $150 million assessment is “likely 
significantly higher since the scheme has been operating since 2025, with 
thousands of victim exchange withdrawals identified.” Ultimately, he advised 
victims of DSJEX and BG Wealth’s scheme to file a police report in their 
jurisdiction to aid global investigations and potential restitution from 
laundered proceeds. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from 
TradingView.com

$150M Crypto Ponzi Crumbles: $41.5M Frozen In DSJ Exchange Collapse

The UAE&#8217;s military anniversary highlights regional instability, potentially 
escalating tensions and impacting geopolitical dynamics.
The post UAE marks armed forces&#8217; 50th anniversary amid Iran tensions appeared 
first on Crypto Briefing.

Ripple CEO Warns: If CLARITY Act Markup Slips, Chances Fall ‘Precipitously’

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