Iran: Nuclear Talks and Sanctions Relief to Begin Within 60 Days

June 15: The chances of the U.S. "Clarity Act" clearing Congress by July 4 and being signed into law by the president are fading, with the primary roadblock being a severe mismatch between the legislative timeline and the time left. Sources note there are just around 9 Senate working days ahead of the chamber’s recess. Lawmakers still have several critical steps to wrap up: reconciling bills from the Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees, agreeing on ethics provisions, securing 60 votes for cloture, and finishing multiple rounds of amendment votes and final passage. Even if the Senate wraps up its deliberations, the revised bill must still clear the House of Representatives before heading to the president for signature. The piece calls the process "mathematically almost impossible." Still, some policymakers hold out hope the bill could pass by the end of the year. Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House Cryptocurrency Policy Office, previously voiced optimism for a J

June 15 (CNN) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance announced that the U.S.-Iran agreement was signed electronically over the weekend, making the deal effective immediately, and Iran will not receive any newly unfrozen funds. In an appearance on ABC TV, Vance said: “We signed the agreement electronically yesterday, and so far, no funds have been released. That will stay that way.” While there had been prior speculation about an electronic signature ahead of the full deal being finalized, that detail was only confirmed publicly now. Separately, former President Trump announced Sunday that the formal in-person signing ceremony for the agreement will take place in Switzerland this Friday. In his announcement of the deal, Trump noted: “As the strait reopens in conjunction with Friday’s agreement signing, it creates conditions for demining work, and oil will flow again from both ends of the strait to the region and beyond!”

June 15: On-chain analytics firm Lookonchain reports that the whale wallet address geministar.eth increased its Ethereum holdings on Binance by 21,136 ETH today, valued at $37.05 million.

On June 15, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced it will launch crypto perpetual futures trading for U.S. users on its professional trading platform Kraken Pro, marking the firm’s latest expansion into the U.S. derivatives market. Perpetual futures are derivatives with no expiry date, using a funding rate mechanism to tie their price to the spot market—popular for leveraged trading of assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The launch comes on the back of Kraken’s acquisition of Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated exchange, clearinghouse, and broker, earlier this May. Separately, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently greenlit Kalshi to offer Bitcoin perpetual futures and gave Coinbase the nod to launch “quasi-perpetual” long-term futures products. Regulators under the current U.S. administration are ramping up efforts to drive the “domestication” of crypto derivatives, aiming to lure trading activity back from overseas platforms to regulated U.S. markets. M

June 15 — Per on-chain analytics firm LookOnChain, amid a market rebound, a crypto whale borrowed another 19,000 ETH ($33.48 million) from Aave and sold it today. As of press time, the whale has taken out a total of 44,389 ETH ($80.56 million) from Aave for selling purposes.

On June 15, SpaceX said its underwriters exercised their option to buy an additional 83.33 million shares of stock, bringing the total capital raised in its initial public offering (IPO) to approximately $85.7 billion. Source: Jinse.