According to BlockBeats, on July 27, cryptocurrencies have long promised to eliminate traditional financial intermediaries such as banks and securities firms through blockchain technology. However, as the industry enters 2026, a new trend is emerging in the market: blockchain is not eliminating intermediaries, but rather reshaping and giving rise to new digital financial intermediaries.

Analysis indicates that stablecoins are evolving from crypto tools into financial infrastructure, with their core source of trust shifting from code and technology to issuer governance, reserve management, and regulatory compliance. As many countries promote stablecoin regulatory frameworks, issuing institutions are becoming new centers of trust.

Meanwhile, the real-world asset tokenization (RWA) market is expanding rapidly, but the dominant force is not the decentralized community, but traditional financial giants. Institutions including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan Chase, and WisdomTree are pushing for the tokenization of assets such as bonds, funds, and credit. Data shows that the current scale of tokenized real-world assets on-chain exceeds $36 billion.

Institutional investors are also increasingly reliant on intermediaries to enter the crypto market. A significant amount of capital is gaining exposure to crypto assets through channels such as Bitcoin spot ETFs and compliant custodians, rather than directly holding private keys. This means that institutional adoption of crypto assets also strengthens the role of exchanges, custodians, and financial product issuers.

Furthermore, DAO governance practices also demonstrate that technological decentralization does not equate to complete decentralization of power. A significant number of governance decisions remain concentrated in the hands of large token holders, core contributors, and professional governance participants.

Analysts believe this is not a failure of the crypto industry, but rather a historical pattern in the development of fintech: technology typically doesn't eliminate intermediaries, but rather changes their role. The key issue for the future of the blockchain industry is no longer whether it can eliminate intermediaries, but whether emerging digital financial intermediaries can be more transparent, efficient, and verifiable than traditional systems.

According to BlockBeats, on July 27, U.S. Senate Republicans planned to push the CLARITY Act into formal consideration this week, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune hoping to make progress on the bill before the August recess.

According to the agenda, Republicans may first submit a motion to end the debate, a process that requires the support of 60 senators to proceed. However, the bill is currently short of the 60-vote threshold, making Democratic support crucial.

Previously, seven Democratic senators stated that the latest version of the Clarity Act was still "inadequate" in areas such as ethics provisions, regulation of illicit finance, and conflict of interest provisions. Republicans are currently negotiating with Democrats to amend relevant provisions in an attempt to gain bipartisan support.

Furthermore, there is uncertainty within the Republican Party itself. With a limited majority in the Senate and Mitch McConnell expected to be absent, the stances of Republican senators like Josh Hawley and Rand Paul, who previously opposed the GENIUS bill, remain a focus of attention.

Meanwhile, U.S. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce warned that simply moving traditional financial products onto the blockchain does not automatically circumvent securities regulations. She stated that some crypto yield-generating Vault products, if managed by third parties, may qualify as investment funds and thus be subject to securities laws.

Pierce pointed out that the SEC does not regulate the code developers write themselves, but businesses cannot assume that different regulatory rules apply simply because their operations are deployed on-chain. She advised relevant projects to seek legal advice and communicate with regulatory agencies in advance when designing their products.