The Clarity Act and Why It Matters
The Crypto Clarity Act looks likely to pass, though many people count it out. It would be the biggest bipartisan crypto bill ever passed in America, the largest capital market in the world. The Senate votes on whether it advances on September 15th. Most people think it will fail.
Former House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry thinks the vote will be good for crypto and that the Act will pass. He calls it the most important technology law since the Telecoms Act. His reasoning: when everyone agrees well ahead of a vote, that is bad news; when people start to murmur and complain, as they are now, that signals a good vote. Senators looked uncomfortable and split in different directions in August. If they cannot pass it by September 15th, the midterms become a big test of crypto voter power.
On the crypto voter versus the crypto lobby: the crypto voter is what lets the lobby get things done. Banks have been well set up in Washington for generations. Crypto has been there less than five years, so it is still trying to make headway. The message to policy makers is that voters at home care about innovation policy and will punish those who block it. The activism group Fair Shake pushes to make those messages heard. Both parties want to be pro-technology going into the next presidential election, which could sway both the midterms and the next president.
If the Act passes, "Wall Street coins" - projects aligning with where the industry is going and with Wall Street institutions - are set to do well.
The Seven Coins
The list: Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK), CC (a new altcoin this cycle), Zcash (ZEC), Hyperliquid (HYPE), and XRP. A separate list of six coins was already given for the case where the Act fails.
Zcash (ZEC)
Grayscale's head of capital markets, Christa Lynch, told Bloomberg that Zcash is the next big crypto investment after Bitcoin (BTC) and a good way to diversify beyond it. Bitcoin still gets the majority of interest because most people are new to crypto and it is a logical starting point.
Zcash is similar to Bitcoin: it has a capped supply and is a proof-of-work asset. It adds privacy on top. As a privacy token, if you do not want all your information on the blockchain, you can choose a "shielded pool." You still take part in blockchain transactions but do not broadcast everything publicly. You can also choose to reveal that information, which keeps it auditable and lets the protocol enforce compliance. In the AI era, privacy is becoming more important to investors, which is why Zcash stands out from other altcoin ETFs. Altcoins sit further down the tail; investors start with Bitcoin and look for ways to branch out.
Hyperliquid (HYPE)
Bloomberg Intelligence's analyst is strongly bullish. Hyperliquid is the biggest name in decentralized finance (DeFi). A U.S. president signaling that they are working to bring an offshore venue onshore is unprecedented. President Trump made that announcement at the White House in front of the SEC chair, the CFTC chair, and the ICE chair. The next day, CFTC's Mike Selig announced the innovation advisory committee was working to bring Hyperliquid onshore.
The numbers: Hyperliquid did about $114 billion in perpetual futures last month alone, and about $500 billion over the last 6 to 8 months. Bringing it onshore would make it the first DeFi platform regulated onshore by the CFTC, laying the path for every other offshore DeFi platform to follow.
XRP
For the final pick if the Act passes, the choice came down to Ondo (ONO/ONDO) or XRP. Both are very different but both are probably set to do well. XRP made the list because it has a raging online community. These influencers are not worried about fundamentals; they like XRP because every cycle it is huge on social media.
A satirical clip drives the point home: a character claims to hold 1.3 million in XRP at about $2, betting it will bump to $10 and set them up for life, and recommends buying XRP despite not understanding what it stands for or having paid taxes in two years.
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