Odaily reports: a16z and the DeFi Education Fund jointly submitted a proposal to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce, recommending the establishment of a safe harbor rule that creates a "rebuttable presumption" that decentralized exchange (DEX) protocols and their front-end interfaces do not constitute "exchanges" as defined under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. On the same day, a16z submitted a separate letter calling on the SEC to establish a registration regime for centralized crypto trading platforms, modeled after the 1998 Alternative Trading System (ATS) rules. Both letters were dated September 14, and three days later, the SEC issued an "innovation exemption" for tokenized equity trading venues.

Odaily reports that stablecoin infrastructure company Bastion has received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to apply to establish a national trust bank. Founded in 2023 by two former a16z crypto executives, Bastion provides white-label stablecoin issuance, reserve custody, customer wallets, and payment infrastructure for enterprises; its investors include Coinbase Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and Samsung Next, and its latest funding round last year raised $14.6 million.

Odaily News: On September 14, a16z and the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) submitted a proposal to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recommending a "safe harbor" from exchange registration requirements for qualifying decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and their front-end applications (DEX Apps). The proposal suggests that qualifying DEXs should possess four characteristics: non-custodial, automated, permissionless, and credibly neutral; DEX Apps should remain non-custodial, display market data based on objective and verifiable parameters, refrain from exercising discretionary control over trade execution, and limit developer activities to specific technical functions.

1. The U.S. Senate failed to pass the Clarity Act in a procedural cloture vote;2. OpenAI plans pre-IPO fundraising with a valuation target of $1.2 trillion;3. The Clarity Act vote failed but may not be dead yet, John Kennedy says it could wait for a lame-duck session review;4. Lummis: Democrats "chose politics over the American people," handing U.S. crypto leadership to overseas competitors;5. With cumulative profits reaching $179.89 million, Wintermute reduced its short exposure from $102.1 million to $55.54 million;6. a16z partner: Crypto industry fundamentals remain strong, will continue to push for clear regulatory rules;7. "Machi Big Brother" repeatedly stopped out on high-leverage long ETH positions, with account equity retracing from $12.3 million to $1 million;8. Bonk Guy: USELESS remains strong amid the broad market downturn, potentially becoming the next DOGE or SHIB.

Odaily reports that a16z partner Chris Dixon posted on X regarding the CLARITY Act's failure to pass a procedural vote in the U.S. Senate, stating that despite disappointment with the vote outcome, the fundamentals of the crypto industry remain stronger than ever.Dixon said that billions of dollars are now flowing on-chain, leading payment companies and financial institutions are adopting blockchain technology, and entrepreneurs worldwide are developing new financial products. a16z's related work in Washington is far from over, and it will continue to push for clear regulatory rules that both protect consumers and support entrepreneurs' development.

Odaily reports: AI startup Temporal announced the completion of $550 million in late-stage funding, with its valuation more than doubling to $12.55 billion within seven months. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Wellington Management, Goldman Sachs Alternatives' Growth Equity, and Tiger Global participating as co-leads, while SV Angel and advisory accounts of T. Rowe Price Associates also joined. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Sequoia Capital, and GIC continued to participate as existing investors. The funds will be used to expand global operations and deepen platform research and development. (Reuters)

Odaily News: Miles Jennings, Head of Policy and Regulation at a16zcrypto, wrote that the U.S. Senate should push for the passage of the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act. Jennings stated that the risks exposed by the FTX collapse—such as customer asset segregation, custody, and information disclosure—are not complex, yet the existing digital asset market still lacks regulatory safeguards similar to those in traditional financial markets. The CLARITY Act would require digital asset brokers, dealers, and exchanges to implement measures such as customer asset segregation, qualified custody, information disclosure, and insider trading restrictions, while also clarifying the regulatory boundaries between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).Miles Jennings warned that with stablecoin supply now exceeding $300 billion and the market value of tokenized assets surpassing $30 billion, if the Senate fails to act this time, the impact of the next market collapse could be greater than that of the FTX incident.

Odaily News: Venture capital firm Vy Capital, which has an investment team of only 4 people, currently holds approximately 3.4% of SpaceX shares, valued at about $40 billion, making it the fifth-largest shareholder of SpaceX, with a stake exceeding the disclosed holdings of Sequoia Capital and a16z.Vy Capital first invested in SpaceX in 2016, when the latter was valued at approximately $15 billion. In addition, Vy Capital's assets under management have grown from $27 billion at the end of last year to $50 billion as of June this year. (Financial Times)

Odaily reports that enterprise AI company Clay has announced the completion of a $115 million Series D funding round, led by Wellington, with participation from Sequoia Capital, StepStone, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Perennial, Meritech, DST, CapitalG, and others. The post-money valuation has risen to $7.1 billion.Clay stated that its AI agents can build real-time business and customer profiles based on internal and external data such as CRM, and automatically construct and execute workflows according to enterprise goals. Currently, companies including Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and Stripe have adopted its products. (Reuters)

Odaily News: According to GMGN data, following a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen's attention to related accounts, the Robinhood Meme coin FLYBRAIN saw its market cap briefly surge past $50 million, with an intraday gain exceeding 1,300x, now reported at $52.63 million.Odaily reminds readers that Meme coin prices are highly volatile and susceptible to celebrity attention and market sentiment. Please be aware of trading risks.