Today in Crypto: The US Senate Agriculture Committee advanced a crypto market structure bill, Bybit said it will launch bank accounts in February and Worldcoin’s price jumped on reports of a new OpenAI AI project.
US Senate Agriculture Committee advances crypto market structure bill
The US Senate Agriculture Committee advanced a sweeping crypto market structure bill Thursday following a brief markup session marked by partisan divisions.
Lawmakers considered three amendments during the hearing, all of which failed along party lines. Democratic members raised concerns around ethics, conflicts of interest and regulatory oversight, including a proposal that would have barred elected officials from owning digital assets, but those efforts did not gain sufficient support.
The committee ultimately voted 12–11 to advance the bill, clearing it for consideration by the full Senate at a later date. Supporters argued the legislation would provide long-sought regulatory clarity for digital asset markets, while critics warned it could weaken investor protections and expand the authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Before reaching the Senate floor, the bill is expected to be reconciled with parallel crypto legislation under consideration in the Senate Banking Committee.
Bybit to launch retail bank accounts in February
Bybit, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges by trading volume, plans to launch retail banking services on its platform starting in February, the company said Thursday.
Bybit unveiled the product, “My Bank powered by Bybit,” during a live online keynote on Thursday.
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said the service will offer users a personal IBAN (international bank account number), allowing them to send and receive funds across banks in multiple currencies, with US dollar transfers supported at launch.
The move marks Bybit’s latest effort to expand beyond crypto trading, coming about a year after it was hit by a $1.4 billion hack.
Bybit said users will gain access to their personal bank accounts immediately after completing Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, allowing them to deposit fiat currency, pay bills, receive salaries and trade crypto — all under their own name.
Bybit said it is collaborating with several banking partners, including Qatar National Bank (QNB) and DMZ Finance, with which it partnered in September 2025 on tokenized asset initiatives.
According to Bloomberg, the company is also working with startup lender Pave Bank, licensed in the Eastern European country of Georgia.
The service is expected to support transfers in as many as 18 currencies, though it remains subject to regulatory approvals.
Cointelegraph reached out to Bybit for further comment on the new banking services but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Worldcoin spikes 40% as OpenAI reportedly plans biometric X rival
OpenAI-linked token Worldcoin spiked 40% on Wednesday following a report that the artificial intelligence firm is working on a bot-free social media platform that requires “proof of personhood.”
According to a Tuesday Forbes report citing sources familiar with the matter, OpenAI is aiming to develop a “humans-only platform” as a point of difference from other social media services on the market.
Still in its early stages, sources state that a small team of around 10 people is building the platform to compete with X, and that it has reportedly been in development since early 2025, according to tech news outlet The Verge.
Forbes’ sources claimed that any “proof of personhood” would likely be verified via Apple’s Face ID or the World Orb eyeball scanner, which has also been utilized as part of World, the blockchain and crypto project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
