With the U.S. Clarity bill, a cryptocurrency market-structure proposal, failing to clear a Senate hurdle, regulatory uncertainty around Coinbase has emerged as a key issue.

On Sept. 21, blockchain media outlet Cointelegraph reported that the bill failed to secure the 60 votes needed on Sept. 16 to open floor debate in the Senate.

The failed vote further reduced the chance the bill will pass this year. It also comes as the Senate calendar tightens ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election. In particular, an outlook emerged that exchange operators directly affected by U.S. market-structure rules could face a bigger hit.

Ruben Dalfovo (루벤 달포보), an analyst at Saxo Bank, said Coinbase could be most affected by the delay. He said Coinbase's trading business is directly exposed to U.S. market-structure rules, and new rules could determine registration requirements, which assets can be traded and eligibility to participate on platforms. By contrast, he differentiated that Circle is more affected by USDC adoption and interest income from reserves, while Strategy depends more on bitcoin holdings and funding conditions.

The market also reacted immediately. After the vote, shares of Coinbase, Circle and Strategy fell 5 to 10 percent, and weakness continued the next day. That renewed downside factors for related stocks that had hoped for greater regulatory clarity.

Amid this 흐름, expectations around moving traditional finance assets on-chain concentrated on some projects. Standard Chartered forecast that Arbitrum could outperform bitcoin and ether by 2030.

However, the forecast is based on an assumption that the tokenised asset market stands at $39 billion and grows to $4 trillion by 2028. Arbitrum's layer-2 infrastructure and revenue-sharing model are cited as potential beneficiaries, but the pace of actual adoption remains uncertain.

From a corporate treasury-strategy perspective, BitMine's accumulation of ether stands out. BitMine said it added 27,180 ETH last week, lifting total holdings to 5.95 million ETH. The holdings are valued at about $15.4 billion. More than 5.06 million ETH of that has been deployed for staking, and annualised income based on the current yield was estimated at $334 million. Unlike bitcoin treasury companies, ether-holding companies differ in that they can generate recurring income through staking.

Strategy, a bitcoin-holding company, did not make additional bitcoin purchases for a second straight week. Instead, it spent $139.3 million on preferred shares to buy back its own stock.

In security, artificial intelligence (AI) has come under scrutiny for its negative impact on the cryptocurrency industry. Federico Variola (페데리코 바리올라), chief executive officer of Phemex, assessed that AI has been negative for crypto. He added that AI has empowered malicious actors.

This week's cryptocurrency industry developments were marked by the simultaneous highlighting of regulatory delays, expectations for tokenisation infrastructure, expanding staking returns and security concerns. Among them, the stalling of the Clarity bill remained the biggest variable, as it began to directly affect the value of exchanges and related listed companies.