Senate Shifts to Market Structure While GENIUS Awaits House Action
Split strategies emerge as Congress, the White House, and industry debate path forward for crypto legislation
Welcome to the Monday edition of the Crypto In America newsletter!
What you’ll read: The House is set to formally receive the GENIUS Act as the Senate prepares for its first market structure hearing, and Unicoin is entering the digital asset treasury space. Plus, a look ahead at the happenings on Capitol Hill and the crypto conference circuit.
Now that the GENIUS Act is off the Senate’s hands (for now), attention is shifting to the next big item on Congress’s digital asset agenda: market structure.
We’ll get the first glimpse of what the upper chamber’s approach to a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto might look like on Tuesday, when the Senate Banking Committee’s Digital Assets Subcommittee is set to hold a hearing on market structure reform.
Behind the scenes, Banking Committee staffers have been working to draft their own market structure text — separate from the House’s CLARITY Act, which passed out of committee earlier this month. Tuesday’s hearing will likely offer clues as to how the Senate plans to diverge from or complement the House’s approach.
Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), who leads the Banking Committee, told Crypto In America last week that he and Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-AR), see principles in the House’s version they can “embrace” and build on, but confirmed the Senate will be releasing its own market structure text, with a full Senate Banking Committee hearing targeted in the coming weeks.
What will happen with the GENIUS Act?
After its passage in the Senate last week, the GENIUS Act is expected to be formally received by the House as early as today.
But what happens next remains uncertain.
The House will need to decide whether to amend the bill to align with its own stablecoin legislation — the STABLE Act — or move it forward in substantially the same form in which it passed the Senate. Adding to the uncertainty, some in House leadership are said to be pushing to package the stablecoin bill with the broader market structure bill to boost the chances of delivering on President Trump’s mandate of passing both bills before August recess.
Trump himself weighed in Thursday, urging the House to pass a “clean” GENIUS Act at “lightning speed” with “no add-ons.” It’s unclear whether he was referring to potential amendments to the bill, an effort to combine GENIUS with market structure legislation — or both.
While some industry stakeholders welcomed the president’s message, it also set off a flurry of concerned phone calls to Capitol Hill from others, underscoring a growing divide over how Congress should approach this pivotal moment.
One camp wants to pass stablecoin legislation as a standalone bill now, viewing it as an achievable win that could help build momentum for the industry and forge a path for which market structure can follow.
Others, including some House members, worry that moving ahead with only stablecoin legislation could derail or delay broader market structure reforms, particularly given the challenges the GENIUS Act faced in the Senate.
“We look forward to continued collaboration with our members and House leadership as we work toward a path forward,” a spokesperson for House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-AR) said.
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Unicoin Switches Up Business Model Following SEC Lawsuit
Despite being hit with a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit accusing the firm of fraud, Unicoin is doubling down on its U.S. presence and revamping its business model, Crypto in America has learned.
This week, the company will announce plans to acquire a 51% stake in Diamond Lake Minerals, a digital asset and tokenization firm that trades on the OTC market under the ticker DLMI. As part of the deal, Unicoin will rebrand the entity as DiamondLake Inc. and shift its focus to building a digital asset treasury — modeled after MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin accumulation strategy, but with a focus on alt-coins.
CEO Alex Konanykhin says the shift is a direct response to what he calls retaliatory action by the SEC, which he claims blocked Unicoin’s IPO and wiped out shareholder value. The regulator charged Unicoin and three of its executives last month with allegedly defrauding investors in a $100 million crypto offering.
Bitcoin treasury strategies have been gaining traction in recent months, with over 132 public companies adding the world’s largest digital asset to their balance sheets as a long-term store of value and inflation hedge.
“Strategy Inc. has spent over $40B on purchasing bitcoins to achieve its current $106 billion valuation,” Konanykhin said. “We believe that the same results can be achieved much more cost-efficiently in the alt-coin segment, given the progress with the Stablecoin Act and other positive legislative regulatory developments.”
Unicoin has not specified which alt-coins it plans to purchase.
In a personal note to investors, Konanykhin described a long history of setbacks and comebacks, calling the alt-coin strategy a chance to 'repair SEC-inflicted damage' and build long-term value through a more scalable, diversified approach.
The deal is expected to close next month.
What’s Happening in Washington This Week?
Tuesday
10:00 AM EST: Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell testifies before the House Financial Services Committee in his semi-annual Monetary Policy testimony to Congress.
3:00 PM EST: Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets to hold hearing on market structure reform.
Witnesses include:
Ryan VanGrack, Vice President of Legal, Coinbase
Greg Xethalis, General Counsel, MultiCoin Capital
Sarah Hammer, Executive Director, Wharton School at UPenn
A witness for the minority will also be included but has yet to be announced
Wednesday
10:00 AM EST: Powell testifies in front of the Senate Banking Committee.
Friday
8:30 AM EST: The May Core PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures) report is set to show whether the central bank’s preferred inflation indicator continued to decline last month.
On the Crypto Conference Circuit
Blockworks will host its Permissionless IV conference in New York Tuesday-Thursday.
The Bitcoin Policy Institute will host its third annual Summit in D.C. on Wednesday.
Crypto in America's Eleanor Terrett will moderate a panel on Bitcoin mining in the U.S. at 11:35 AM EST, featuring Troy Cross of Reed College and Jayson Browder of MARA.
Remember, new editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7AM EST.
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And soon we will find out if Congress can get these bills to the "finish line" - Trump's desk.