Morning Minutes: President Trump’s Crypto Entanglement Threatens CLARITY Act Timeline

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GM!

Today’s top news:

Major cryptocurrencies hit new regional lows and then rebound. BTC -3% at $76,000 Vitalik says original L2 vision no longer makes sense after long X post Y Combinator announces team will receive $500,000 in USDC funding this spring Circle announces $30,000 hackathon for AI agents only Standard Chartered announces 2030 SOL price target of $2,000 based on micropayments dominance

🏛️ Sen. Murphy accuses President Trump of “criminal conduct” over UAE cryptocurrency transactions

The president’s ties to cryptocurrencies are once again causing legislative difficulties for the broader industry.

📌What happened

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) accused President Trump of “brazen public corruption,” alleging that the UAE secretly funneled $187 million to Trump family entities through World Liberty Financial in the days before Trump’s inauguration, in exchange for restricted access to AI chips.

Sen. Murphy alleged “potential criminal activity” related to a $500 million deal in which UAE-backed Ayam Investments acquired 49% of World Liberty Financial four days before President Trump took office.

Approximately $187 million went to Trump family entities and $31 million to the family of special envoy Steve Witkoff shortly before the administration gave the green light to expand the UAE’s access to advanced AI chips that Biden had restricted, according to a WSJ report.

This all happened while the White House hosted a two-hour crypto summit on Monday with Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken, Tether, Circle, and major banks to negotiate stablecoin yield provisions in the CLARITY Act.

Although no agreement was reached, the administration set a deadline for a compromise in February.

🗣️ What they are saying

“That’s corruption. These are elements of bribery. This is potentially criminal activity,” Murphy said on the Senate floor. “The rule of law is returning,” he said, warning that those involved “will be sent to prison.”

President Trump told reporters on Monday that he was unaware of the investment, saying, “I don’t know about it. My sons are handling it. My family is handling it, and they’re probably getting investments from other people.”

A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial flatly denied any connection, saying, “Any claim that this deal has anything to do with government action regarding chips is 100% false. Left-wing media outlets are disingenuously pushing baseless insinuations.”

🧠 Why is it important?

So where does this leave us?

The Cryptocurrency Market Structure Bill, which was supposed to bring regulatory clarity, is now at the center of a new partisan battle.

Democrats are trying to link President Trump’s passage of anti-corruption provisions targeting crypto businesses.

banks still stable coin Clause as a deal breaker.

And the UAE scandal provides ammunition for those who want to slow things down.

For the market: Regulatory uncertainty persists.

The bill, which was supposed to provide a “basic framework” by the first quarter, is now hostage to a partisan war.

Now we wait to see if the administration can separate Trump’s personal crypto ventures from the industry’s legislative priorities…

🌎 Macro cryptocurrencies and markets

The major cryptocurrencies are in the red, but have rebounded after a significant drop. BTC -3% for $76,000. ETH is -1% at $2,250. SOL -6% $96.4. XRP -1% at around $1.59 WLFI (+5%) led top movers Vitalik Buterin breaks Ethereum’s L2-focused roadmap, warns that some Layer 2 compromises decentralization and should not be ‘branded’ as an Ethereum extension Epstein Files Reveals Jeffrey Epstein Invested $500,000 in Blockstream’s 2014 Seed Round Through Joy Ito’s Fund and Was Invited Adam Returns to the Island Y Combinator Announces Startups Can Receive $500,000 Seed Checks in USDC on Base, Solana, or Ethereum Starting This Spring Justin Sun’s alleged ex-girlfriend accused Justin Sun of running a coordinated Binance account using an employee’s identity to pump up TRX before dumping it into retail Standard Chartered lowers 2026 SOL target to $250 (from $310) but raises long-term forecast to $2000 in 2030; says Solana will dominate stablecoin micropayments beyond meme coins Cathie Wood’s Ark Investments bought $72 million in crypto stocks on Monday: Robinhood for $32.7 million, Coreweave for $14.6 million, Circle for $9.4 million, Bitmine for $6.3 million, Bullish for $6 million, and Coinbase for $1.3 million.

Corporate Treasurys and ETFs

BTC ETF posted $272 million in net inflows on Tuesday, while ETH was eclipsed by $14 million in inflows Galaxy Digital fell nearly 16% after reporting a $482 million fourth-quarter net loss Kraken’s parent company Payward posted $2.2 billion in 2025 adjusted revenue (up 33% year-over-year)

meme coin tracker

Meme Major was almost flat. DOGE +1%, SHIB -1%, PEPE -1%, TRUMP -1%, FARTCOIN -2% Notable Solana drivers: arc (+40%), Buttcoin (+14%), WhiteWhale (+26%) CLAWSTR $12M with 17x execution on base. Rent +10x up to $2 million

💰 Tokens, Airdrops and Protocol Trackers

Circle Announces $30,000 Hackathon Dedicated to AI Agents Across Agent Commerce, OpenClaw Skills, and Smart Contracts Ondo Receives EU Regulatory Approval to List Tokenized Stocks and eTFs Ethena Announces Exchange Points as New Rewards Program for Trading Activity on Ethena Euphoria Announces 2-Week Tap Trading Contest Starting February 16th on MegaETH RentAHuman.ai launches a service that allows AI agents to hire humans for IRL tasks paid in stablecoins (rent

🚚 What’s happening with NFTs?

Most NFT leaders were red. Punks at -27 ETH, Pudgy at -3% at 4.2 ETH, and BAYC at 5.36 ETH. Hypurr -4% on 520 HYPE, Cyberkongz (+60%) led notable move