Cynthia Lummis supports Clarity Act to combat Lazarus exploitation

Senator Cynthia Lummis is pushing the CLARITY Act as a direct response to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, the state-sponsored hacking operation that has turned crypto theft into a national revenue stream. The bill would hand the Treasury Department expanded authority to freeze suspicious transactions and impose sanctions on foreign digital asset firms engaged in illicit finance. What the CLARITY Act actually does The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, formally designated H.R. 3633, grants Treasury new sanctions authority to target foreign digital asset entities involved in illicit activities. Section 10305 of the bill introduces a safe harbor provision for digital asset firms that freeze suspicious transactions. If a compliant exchange or stablecoin issuer spots something shady and hits pause on a transaction, they won’t get sued for it. Right now platforms face genuine legal risk when they unilaterally freeze customer funds, even when those funds are clearly tied to criminal activity. The bill also extends Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering requirements to digital asset exchanges and certain DeFi platforms. On the enforcement funding side, the CLARITY Act proposes $150 million...