Trump Media abandons crypto deal to pass Clarity Act
- Trump Media scrapped its Cronos treasury deal to clear Senate procedural hurdles for crypto legislation.
- Senate Majority Leader John Thune needs six Democratic crossovers for a September market structure vote.
- Bitcoin miners rejected the BIP-110 soft fork, choosing network profitability over payload filtering.
Trump Media walked away from its crypto treasury plans.
On Bitcoin And, analyst David Bennett detailed how Trump Media terminated its Cronos treasury partnership and prediction market deal with Crypto.com. The sudden exit coincides with Senate Majority Leader John Thune pushing a Clarity Act vote to September. Democratic lawmakers had raised President Donald Trump's personal token ventures as an ethics conflict, stalling negotiations. Bennett argues the termination was a calculated political sacrifice to secure six Democratic crossover votes.
"Trump abandoned lucrative deal structures to secure bipartisan backing for the broader market structure bill."
- David Bennett, Bitcoin And
The legislative bargaining happens against a backdrop of severe operational pressure across digital asset markets.
Institutional sentiment is shifting rapidly after a catastrophic firmware bug. A software generator flaw in Coldcard hardware wallets allowed automated scripts to drain $114 million across 5,200 addresses in seconds. An AI security audit funded by OpenSats subsequently uncovered 85 critical vulnerabilities across 390 open-source Bitcoin repositories. Bennett noted that the security panic is accelerating institutional flight toward managed custodians and spot ETFs.
Ideological purity is taking a backseat to economic reality across the entire network. The anti-inscription BIP-110 soft fork died on arrival after miners refused to enforce payload filtering rules, leaving the new chain stranded. Meanwhile, AI hyperscalers are outbidding crypto operations for prime grid capacity, forcing miners toward stranded off-grid energy.
"Being on prime electrical grids was an economic inefficiency born out of convenience, not necessity."
- David Bennett, Bitcoin And
Even sovereign adoption models are hitting structural limits. Five years after Nayib Bukele mandated digital legal tender in El Salvador, his government amended its Bitcoin law under IMF pressure to strip out compulsory acceptance. Consensus mechanics held firm, but top-down state planning failed to alter consumer habits.
Market discipline and legislative compromise, not ideological zeal, are dictating the industry's direction.