Laws move slower than markets. But they hit harder. This is issue #64 of The Bitcoin Act — your Tuesday and Sunday briefing on the legal and regulatory moves that actually shape Bitcoin.

Now for today’s top stories:

🏛️ CLARITY Act Momentum Builds
House Financial Services Chairman French Hill argued at a Federal Hall hearing that America's leadership depends on the CLARITY Act.

🇹🇼 Taiwan Eyes Bitcoin Reserve
Lawmaker Ko Ju-Chun puts 80% odds on Taiwan holding government Bitcoin savings within five years.

🏦 Fed: No Bailouts Coming
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh warned failing crypto firms get no rescue. Your safety net is self-custody, not the central bank.

Code 2FOR1 gets you two WeAreDevelopers World Congress passes for the price of one — so don't make the trip to Silicon Valley solo.

San José, CA · September 23–25, 2026. 10,000+ developers, 500+ speakers, 20+ stages, and the full software development lifecycle in one place.

On stage: Kelsey Hightower, Thomas Dohmke (former GitHub CEO), Christine Yen (Honeycomb), Olivier Pomel (Datadog) — the people building the tools you use every day. Three days of AI, agents, cloud, security, and architecture, plus workshops, live coding, and the official Congress party.

Bring the builder you'd want in the room with you.

Get Your Passes

French Hill (Chairman, House Financial Services Committee, R-AR) argued at the recent Federal Hall field hearing that America's financial leadership depends on enacting the CLARITY Act, a market-structure bill setting clear rules for Bitcoin.

Mike Novogratz (CEO, Galaxy Digital) urged senators to finish the CLARITY Act, saying negotiations now hinge only on an ethics clause preventing politicians from gaining a personal financial edge.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried shows no remorse, co-sponsoring a unanimously approved Senate resolution opposing any presidential pardon or sentence reduction for him.

Marcelo Martinez (Federal Judge, Argentina) ordered the freezing of 25 wallets tied to the Libra token using exchange identity checks, called KYC, to unmask their owners.

Bitcoin Policy UK (advocacy group) argues Hussain v Fix, a London County Court case, could decide whether English courts can order debts repaid in Bitcoin itself rather than converted pounds.

Kevin Warsh (Chair, Federal Reserve) warned that failing token firms, Bitcoin-related or otherwise, will receive no central-bank bailout, insisting the industry must bear its own losses in a crisis.

Ko Ju-Chun (Legislator, Taiwan) estimates an 80% chance Taiwan builds a strategic Bitcoin reserve — government-held Bitcoin savings — within five years if a center-right government wins the 2028 election.

Joe Nakamoto (Bitcoin content creator) questions whether El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption excuses President Bukele's warrantless surveillance, Chivo wallet biometric leaks, and near-five-year emergency rule suspending privacy rights.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) stated last year's GENIUS Act, the stablecoin reserve law, was only a first step, urging passage of the CLARITY Act to secure American leadership.

Eleanor Terrett (financial journalist) reported updated CLARITY Act text remains elusive after President Trump met Senate Republicans on ethics, with industry insiders expecting the rollout to slip to next week.

Be the very first to open this newsletter and claim 2,100 sats! Learn interesting things and get paid for being quick! 👇

⏰ July 18, 2026 – US regulators blew their July 18 deadline to finalize stablecoin rules under the GENIUS Act; the law still takes effect January 18, 2027 regardless. The Block

⛓️ 22 years – Taiwan sentenced BitShine exchange boss Shih to 22 years in prison for defrauding 1,539 victims of $39 million through his fake exchange. The Block

🚔 $5.4 million – Three UK men stole $5.4 million in tokens by posing as police with fake websites; self-custody means no impostor holds your keys. The Block

🚫 578,751 – French users visited betting site Polymarket 578,751 times last month despite a ban, so France ordered internet providers to block the site entirely. France 24

🇪🇺 27 countries – Payment firm BitPay can now offer Bitcoin and stablecoin payments across all 27 EU countries after Dutch approval under MiCA, Europe's licensing regime. Bitcoin.com

🇺🇸 July 20–25 (expected) — Senate floor action window for the CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill splitting Bitcoin and crypto oversight between regulators. Majority Leader Thune promised a vote this work period; no date is locked. 

🇺🇸 July 20 (unconfirmed) — Insiders expect the final CLARITY Act text — the bill's fully negotiated wording — around this date, with the ethics clause Democrats demand still the open question. Nothing is official: the Senate hasn't even filed a cloture motion, the procedural step that ends debate and forces a vote.

⛏️ July 21 — Mining Disrupt 2026, Miami — The premier Bitcoin mining conference. Mining decentralization underpins censorship resistance: the harder it is to control miners, the safer your self-custodied sats.

🇬🇧 July 21 — Future World Expo UK, London — Broad tech and finance expo covering Web3 and AI, not Bitcoin-specific. Useful for reading where UK policymakers are steering crypto regulation.

🇪🇺 July 20–21 — Informal EU competitiveness ministers meeting — Agenda is research-focused, but digital finance talks may touch tokenized capital markets. Watch for signals on where EU crypto rules head next.

⚡ July 23 — Energy Investors Forum, Irving, Texas — Executives, miners, and utilities on energy and compute, with Congressman Buddy Carter speaking. Energy policy decides whether US Bitcoin mining stays viable.

🇺🇸 July 24 — Patrick Witt, White House lead on Bitcoin policy, wraps up his White House work mid-negotiation ahead of Army National Guard training starting July 27 — a key seat goes empty while CLARITY Act ethics talks remain unresolved.

🇪🇺 Ongoing, any day — European Commission MiCA review consultation — Brussels is gathering input on updating its licensing regime for exchanges, stablecoins and tokenization.

"Freedom is indivisible. As soon as one starts to restrict it, one enters upon a decline on which it is difficult to stop." — Ludwig von Mises

Help spread the signal, and get paid in sats for it. The Bitcoin Act runs a tiered affiliate program.

Every milestone you hit triggers an automatic email asking for your Lightning address.

Reply, and the sats are sent. → 1 referral = 21 sats → 5 referrals = 210 sats → 10 referrals = 2,100 sats

Track your progress anytime from the referral dashboard. Your referral link: {{rp_refer_url}}