Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Ukrainian lawmakers have introduced a draft bill that would allow the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to include cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the country’s reserves, a slated Bitcoin software update has divided the community, and a US House committee approved a crypto market structure bill.Crypto asset reserve bill lands in Ukraine’s parliamentUkrainian lawmakers have introduced a draft bill that would allow the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to include cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the country’s reserves.Submitted to Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on Tuesday, bill number 13356 proposes amendments to the law “On the National Bank of Ukraine” regarding the inclusion of crypto assets alongside gold and foreign currencies.While authorizing the central bank to acquire cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as part of state reserves, the bill would not require the authority to do so, according to Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of parliament who confirmed the introduction of the bill on his Telegram channel.The central bank would retain full discretion over whether to allocate any portion of its reserves to crypto, how much to allocate and when to do so.“How, when and how much should be the decision of the regulator itself,” Zhelezniak said.Although leaving the final decision to the NBU, the lawmakers support the creation of a potential state crypto asset reserve as a step that will integrate the country into global financial innovations, Zhelezniak said.Bitcoin update to raise data limit on OP_RETURN functionAn upcoming Bitcoin software update will increase the data limit on a divisive function that will allow significantly more images, text and documents to be stored on the Bitcoin blockchain, Bitcoin Core developer Gloria Zhao said on Monday.The Bitcoin Core 30 update, slated for Oct. 30, will remove the 80-byte limit on the OP_RETURN function and allow each output to carry up to 4 megabytes of data. The function enabled the Ordinals craze last year, allowing Bitcoin users to post non-fungible token-like collections on Bitcoin.The slated change infuriated the conservative sect of the Bitcoin community, who argue that non-financial data clogs the blockchain with spam, while others, including the proposal‘s lead author Peter Todd, believe increasing the data limit will expand Bitcoin’s use cases beyond finance.In a statement on GitHub, Zhao said the Bitcoin Core devs favored a more hands-off approach, allowing users to utilize the chain however they choose and that preventing “certain transactions from being mined reflects a misunderstanding of the relationship between open source software users and developers.”House Agriculture Committee advances crypto market structure billLawmakers on the US House Agriculture Committee voted in favor of the Digital Asset Market Clarity, or CLARITY, Act, advancing the bill further in Congress.In a 47-6 vote on Tuesday, an overwhelming majority of lawmakers on the committee approved the CLARITY Act to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets. Committee Chair GT Thompson said the bill would be sent to the House for consideration, adding that any members offering opposing views would have the opportunity to submit them by Friday.The vote came alongside debate on the House Financial Services Committee discussing an amendment that could add protections for blockchain developers to the CLARITY Act. At the time of publication, the committee had not voted on the bill. According to its sponsors and co-sponsors, the CLARITY Act is intended to establish clear rules under which digital asset companies can operate in the United States, by also clarifying whether certain investment vehicles fall under the purview of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Consideration of the bill, first introduced in May, comes as the Senate is expected to vote on the GENIUS Act — legislation to regulate payment stablecoins.