Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) are showing surprising resilience despite fading hopes for near-term U.S. crypto legislation.

Crypto Shrugs Off Clarity

In a Schwab Network interview on Aug. 6, Charles Schwab equity research director Adam Lynch noted that the CLARITY Act is "pretty much dead." He added that he does not expect much progress on the legislation for now.

Still, Bitcoin has held relatively firm above $65,000 after briefly dropping to around $62,500 at the beginning of August.

Lynch said the muted response suggests passage of the CLARITY Act was not heavily priced into cryptocurrency valuations.

Ethereum has performed even better with an approximate gain of 18% since June 1, compared with about 7% for Bitcoin.

XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), meanwhile, has lagged the largest cryptocurrencies, falling around 5% over the past month.

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) increased almost 2% over the past 24 hours.

The Coldcard wallet exploit potentially encouraged some investors to shift toward spot Bitcoin ETFs rather than self-custody their assets.

SoSoValue data shows $754 million of inflows into BTC ETFs this month compared with around $195 million for Ethereum products.

Fed Becomes Next Catalyst

With the CLARITY Act fading as an immediate catalyst, Lynch sees inflation and monetary policy potentially becoming more important for crypto prices.

He argued that another acceleration in inflation could encourage investors to rotate toward Bitcoin due to its independence from government-controlled monetary supply.

The Federal Reserve’s September meeting, however, could present a downside risk.

"Anytime the interest rates are going up, you’re going to see things like stocks and Bitcoin and others probably drop a little bit," he said.

AI Pivot Offers Brightspot

Crypto-related equities faced a difficult Q2 earnings season, Lynch said, with several companies reporting revenue or other financial misses.

Bitcoin miners were particularly challenged as weaker BTC prices pressured their core mining businesses.

However, Lynch identified miners expanding into AI and data-center infrastructure as relative winners.

Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) and Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) delivered stronger reports and stock-price performance as their businesses increasingly benefit from AI infrastructure demand.

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