Crypto’s Biggest Week Ends With GENIUS Act Poised to Become Law
House sends stablecoin bill to Trump's desk, advances broader crypto and anti-CBDC measures
Welcome to the Friday edition of the Crypto In America newsletter!
What you’ll read: A dramatic week on Capitol Hill ends in a win for crypto, and a roundup of the top stories.
In what’s being hailed as a watershed moment for the $4 trillion crypto industry, Congress passed three major pieces of digital asset legislation on Thursday, delivering a sweeping win for crypto advocates who’ve spent years pushing for legal and regulatory clarity in the United States.
The centerpiece: the GENIUS Act, a bill that creates a regulatory framework for stablecoins, cleared the House in a 308-122 vote. A rare show of bipartisanship resulted in more than 100 Democrats joining Republicans to back the Senate-passed measure, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who broke from other top Democrats to vote yes.
The CLARITY Act, a broader market structure bill that lays out the regulatory architecture for digital assets and their overseers, also passed 294 to 134 with support from 78 Democrats. That’s a bigger bipartisan margin than last year’s FIT21 market structure bill, and a sign that crypto-friendly legislation is gaining more traction on the left, even as some senior Democrats remain wary. Jeffries voted no on CLARITY, but others, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA), voted yes.
The sticking point for many Democrats remains the same: that legitimizing crypto through legislation risks enabling systemic financial instability and facilitating corruption. Several members, including House Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), have pointed directly to President Trump’s crypto ventures — particularly his TRUMP meme coin and his family’s stablecoin — as examples of why stronger ethics rules should be included in any legislation.
“I told a lot of my colleagues — wouldn’t you rather have some regulation of the Trump coin than no regulation of the Trump coin?” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), a longtime supporter of establishing clear rules of the road for the industry, told Crypto In America. “Doing nothing to me is a bad answer, and I know some of my colleagues think that's the best answer. I think that's the wrong answer.”
Still, the broader political shift is unmistakable: more Democrats than ever before are siding with Republicans to build out a long-awaited, much-needed legal framework for crypto in the U.S.
“It’s not just a win,” Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) told Crypto In America. “It’s a dramatic shift from where we were just a year ago — when Gary Gensler and the SEC were running roughshod over the industry — to where we are today.”
Not everything this week was bipartisan. The House also narrowly passed the Anti-CBDC Act, which would block the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency. That vote — 219 to 210 — fell largely along party lines, with just two Democrats supporting the measure. GOP leaders now plan to attach the measure to the NDAA defense spending bill, though it’s unclear whether it will remain in the final bill once it passes.
And the week wasn’t without its share of chaos. Thursday’s passage came after 48 hours of internal negotiations, last-minute vote flips, an intervention by President Trump, and a record-setting floor vote of nearly 10 hours during a tense standoff over the Anti-CBDC bill.
But when all was said and done, crypto’s biggest week in Congress wrapped on a high note. President Trump is expected to sign the GENIUS Act into law this afternoon at a White House ceremony — marking the first major piece of crypto legislation ever to receive the sign-off from a sitting U.S. president.
Invest as you spend with the Gemini Credit Card®. Get approved to earn $200 in Bitcoin. Issued by WebBank. Terms apply.
Weekly Recap
ICYMI. Here are some of the biggest news stories this week from the intersection of Washington and Web3:
The global crypto market cap hit $4 trillion after Congress passed three pieces of crypto-friendly legislation. XRP hit a record $3.66 with a $216 billion market cap, while Ethereum topped $430 billion and Cardano crossed $30 billion.
President Trump is expected to sign an executive order allowing retirement accounts to invest in assets like cryptocurrencies, gold, and private equity, according to a report from the Financial Times.
The U.S. Marshals Service holds around 28,988 BTC, worth about $3.4 billion, as of March, according to a Freedom of Information Act request made public this week.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins says the agency is considering an innovation exception from regulations to promote tokenization, following the House passage of stablecoin and market structure legislation.
Nasdaq filed an updated request with the SEC to add staking to BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF, following a record $499 million daily inflow into ETH ETFs.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) introduced a bill that would allow Bitcoin and other crypto holdings to be considered during mortgage evaluations.
The DOJ and CFTC closed investigations into the overseas prediction market Polymarket without filing charges, after probing whether it accepted bets from U.S. customers.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the California Breakthrough Project with execs from Ripple, Coinbase, MoonPay, and more to advise on government innovation.
Fairshake, crypto’s biggest super PAC, reported $141 million in cash on hand as of June 30, with $109 million raised since Election Day 2024.
The OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC released joint guidance for how banks should handle custody of digital assets, reaffirming that banks must apply existing risk management, legal, and compliance frameworks when holding crypto on behalf of customers.
Remember, new editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7AM EST.
If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!
So, a slow week. 🤯