The US House of Representatives' 'Crypto Week' has been condensed into a single day of crypto-focused activity, following a late-night resolution to a Republican disagreement and the formulation of a plan to hold all crypto legislative votes on Thursday. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a top priority for the industry that aims to establish rules for US crypto markets, is scheduled to be voted on first, just before 4 pm, as per House plans.
This will be followed by a vote on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which seeks to establish government oversight of stablecoin issuers. If passed, the GENIUS Act would represent the first major US crypto policy. The lawmakers will then proceed to address a bill aimed at banning a US central bank digital currency, an issue that had caused Republican members of the House Freedom Caucus to earlier disrupt procedural steps.
The expected Wednesday vote on the Clarity Act was postponed due to a lengthy debate among House Republicans regarding the central bank digital currency component, which stretched almost to midnight. With the proceedings now back on track, the White House is preparing for a Friday afternoon ceremony where President Donald Trump can sign the GENIUS Act, thereby fulfilling a promise to the industry to establish US crypto regulations this year. 'This is common-sense, forward-looking legislation,' stated Representative French Hill, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, during a Thursday House floor debate on the GENIUS Act. However, Representative Maxine Waters, the committee's ranking Democrat, argued that the bill would 'plant the seeds for the next financial crisis.' Although the GENIUS Act may be nearing passage, the Clarity Act, which aims to oversee the broader crypto industry, is more complex and larger in scope.
Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has set a September 30 deadline for his chamber to complete similar market structure legislation, but several hurdles remain. The committee has yet to share the language of the bill it is working on, and the bill must also be approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee, which is less advanced in its work on the topic. With Senate Democrats already raising objections to the existing proposals, 'working through Democratic concerns on market structure will take well into the fall, and quite possibly beyond,' predicted Beacon Policy Advisors.
Crypto lobbyists expect a substantially different bill in the Senate, which would mean the House would face at least one more vote on crypto market structure in the future. If the House's Clarity Act vote proceeds as planned on Thursday, it is expected to yield a significant bipartisan result, with industry lobbyists anticipating more than 30 Democrats to support the effort.
A strong result, such as the 71 Democrats who backed a predecessor bill in the previous congressional session, 'will put pressure on the Senate to act,' according to policy analyst Jaret Seiberg of TD Cowen, who views the market structure effort as more crucial for the sector than GENIUS, as it will establish the regulatory regime for trading platforms and tokens.