Kaupr Daily - Wednesday 16 September 2026
Good morning. Washington could not get sixty votes together, and the bill the industry has waited years for went down over the president's own crypto business. Brussels spent the same week moving on supervision, a digital euro and cyber rules — none of it hanging on a single vote. And in Stockholm, two companies are getting on with it either way.
💎 The Clarity Act falls 49-50, eleven short of what it needed
💎 Democrats point to the $1.4 billion the president earned from crypto last year
💎 Europe weighs handing ESMA direct supervision of crypto firms
💎 The ECB wants merchants for a digital euro pilot starting in 2027
💎 Wallet makers now have 24 hours to report a live exploit
Kaupr TV has both Swedish launches this week: Goobit's new CEO on building Futureproof without his own licence, and Firi's country manager on entering Sweden.
— Morten
The Clarity Act fails in the Senate
Forty-nine votes, eleven short
The Senate voted 49-50 on Tuesday's cloture motion, leaving the crypto market structure bill eleven votes short of the sixty it needed to reach debate. Several Republicans voted no. Senator Thom Tillis voted against and then filed a motion to reconsider, which keeps the bill alive for a second attempt. Ripple's Brad Garlinghouse called the result stinging.
Why it matters: A procedural motion can be refiled, but the calendar cannot: the midterms are in November and a new Congress convenes in January.
Source: Democrats vote down crypto's Clarity Act, citing ethics concerns and Trump's crypto wealth — SiliconANGLE
The industry's biggest ally turned out to be the obstacle
Democrats who voted no pointed to the same thing: the president's own crypto holdings. Trump disclosed $1.4 billion in earnings from crypto ventures last year. Senator Elissa Slotkin said the ethics provisions were too thin. Coinbase said it will keep building, and calls regulatory clarity a question of when, not if.
Why it matters: The industry spent two years betting that a friendly White House was the fastest route to legislation, and the president's own business is what the bill could not get past.
Source: The crypto industry saw Trump as its savior. His crypto business just snagged a key bill — CNN
XRP falls 10 per cent, and attention moves to the SEC
XRP dropped nearly 10 per cent to $1.30, the worst of the majors, with bitcoin slipping to just above $76,000. Crypto equities took it harder, with Coinbase down nearly 9 per cent. The SEC's proposed Reg Crypto framework is now the only route left to the certainty Congress did not deliver.
Why it matters: Rules written by an agency can be rewritten by the next administration, which is exactly the instability the bill was meant to end.
Source: XRP sinks 10% as the Clarity Act fails and bitcoin slides toward $76,000 — CoinDesk
Analysts say the market was never waiting on Congress
Arctic Digital's head of research called the defeat a recalibrated timeline rather than a fatal blow, noting the previous all-time high was set before Clarity existed. BTC Markets said legislation was never the binding constraint, and the cycle is rates-dependent. One structural point did come up: mining hashrate sits well below its December peak as miners move capacity into AI compute.
Why it matters: If the market is priced on rates rather than rules, the Federal Reserve decision this afternoon matters more than yesterday's vote.
Source: 'Nothing truly structural': Analysts downplay Clarity Act defeat — The Block
Europe: supervision, a digital euro pilot and onchain lending
Crypto is pushing Europe towards a single supervisor
MiCA gave Europe one rulebook, but supervision stayed national, and firms can passport across the bloc from whichever country authorises them. Of 94 MiCA-authorised providers, 62 planned to operate in at least seven member states. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland want ESMA turned into a real European supervisor. Ireland and Luxembourg are more cautious.
Why it matters: Lagarde calls fragmented supervision a tax on competitiveness that Europe imposes on itself, and crypto is the test case for fixing it.
Source: Crypto is pushing Europe towards a single financial watchdog — EU Perspectives
The ECB wants merchants for its digital euro pilot
The central bank has invited e-commerce merchants across the euro area into a twelve-month pilot starting in the second half of 2027. They will test a beta currency that is not legal tender, alongside 19 national central banks and 36 banks and payment firms already selected. Possible issuance is targeted for 2029.
Why it matters: Building the rails is the easy half. Getting enough shops to accept it that consumers stop checking first is the part that decides whether it works.
Wallet makers get 24 hours to report a live exploit
The EU's Cyber Resilience Act took effect on Friday. Wallet providers must send an early warning within 24 hours of becoming aware of an actively exploited vulnerability, and a full notification within 72. Fines reach €15 million or 2.5 per cent of worldwide turnover. It follows data breaches disclosed by Trezor and BitBox.
Why it matters: Wallet makers have handled disclosure on their own timetable until now, and the clock starts from awareness rather than from having a fix.
Source: EU cyber rules put crypto wallet makers on 24-hour reporting clock — Cointelegraph
Hilbert funds its loan book with stablecoins from onchain depositors
The lending arm of Sweden's Hilbert Group has launched hLEND with Ember Protocol. Approved investors deposit stablecoins into a shared onchain pool. Hilbert Finance picks the borrowers, lends against collateral worth more than the loan, and manages the book. The pool held about two million dollars at the end of August.
Why it matters: The announcement does not say how the pool is treated in the accounts, or who carries the loss if a borrower defaults.
Source: Hilbert funds lending with onchain deposits — Kaupr
🎥 Kaupr TV — Goobit's new CEO on Futureproof, MiCA and the road back
Goobit launched Futureproof this week, a savings platform that brings bitcoin, gold and interest-bearing assets together in one product. Gustav Buder explains how it is put together: bitcoin through Kvarn X, gold through Kvarn Metals, and the investment account inside a bank structure. Asked who the customer is buying from, his answer is that it is not Goobit.
Gustav Buder, CEO of Goobit
Goobit's own MiCA application was refused by the Swedish FSA in July and the appeal is still pending. Buder explains why Futureproof does not depend on the outcome, and why he has not ruled out a fresh application. He became CEO on 15 August, joining from Bybit, where he led the Nordic business.
📖 Read the whole Goobit story
Goobit's CEO explains what Futureproof actually is
Goobit launches bitcoin and gold saving on a Finnish licence
Finland's Kvarn rents out its MiCA licence to Nordic partners
Kvarn rejects that the Goobit deal is agency or outsourcing
Goobit hires another Bybit executive — Leeb on Futureproof
Goobit raises SEK 25m, nine of it in fresh cash
🎥 Kaupr TV — Firi takes on the Swedish crypto market
Firi, the largest crypto exchange in the Nordics, goes live in Sweden this week. Country manager Ted Scheiman explains why Sweden was chosen as the first market outside Norway and Denmark, and how the customer journey has been rebuilt around Swedish BankID, Swish and local open banking providers.
Ted Scheiman, Country manager Firi Sweden
Only one local player, Safello, holds MiCA authorisation in Sweden, while Norwegian, Finnish and global exchanges are all moving in. Scheiman expects a tough fight, but argues the first task is a shared one: getting Swedish customers into the habit of investing in crypto at all.
📖 Prefer reading?
Firi enters Sweden to fight for 1.1 million crypto owners
📅 Today — three Nordic and Baltic names in the Barcelona final
The EBC12 Startup Battle runs today and tomorrow at the European Blockchain Convention. Sweden's Kryptos, Vilnius-based Lympid and Finland's &Volume are among the twelve finalists.
📅 Tomorrow — Denmark's tax minister meets the industry inside parliament
Nordic Blockchain Association holds Dansk Blockchain Forum at Christiansborg tomorrow, for the second year running inside parliament. Tax minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt speaks on crypto and taxation, in a country that has stood out in the Nordics for a tax regime unfriendly to crypto investment. Held in Danish, seats limited.
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Wishing you a great Wednesday — and welcome back tomorrow morning for the next edition of Kaupr Daily.
Best regards Morten Myrstad Founder & Editor