The U.S. House has handed three payments meant to increase the legitimacy of the cryptocurrency business with new laws as U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed to make the U.S. the “ crypto capital of the world.”
One of the three payments, laws to regulate a sort of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins, had already handed the Senate with broad bipartisan assist and can now head to Trump’s desk. The different two payments — a broader measure to create a brand new market construction for cryptocurrency and a bill to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a brand new digital forex — will go to the Senate.
The stablecoin bill, handed on a 308-122 vote, units preliminary guardrails and client protections for the cryptocurrency, which is tied to a steady asset, typically the U.S. greenback, to cut back value volatility. It handed the Senate with bipartisan assist in June.
“Around the world, payment systems are undergoing a revolution,” mentioned House Financial Services Chair French Hill of Arkansas as lawmakers debated the stablecoin laws Thursday morning. Hill mentioned the bill will “ensure American competitiveness and strong guardrails for our consumers.”
After Mr. Trump declared it “crypto week,” the payments have been stalled for greater than a day amid disagreements amongst House Republicans about how to mix the laws. In the top, GOP leaders put the three payments for a separate votes, leaving the destiny of the opposite two payments unclear within the Senate. The inner dissent might foreshadow challenges forward for the extra sweeping crypto laws that Trump has demanded and the business has poured hundreds of thousands into advancing.
The stablecoin measure is seen by lawmakers and the business as a step towards including legitimacy and client belief to a quickly rising sector. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned in June that the laws might assist that forex “grow into a $3.7 trillion market by the end of the decade.”
The bill outlines necessities for stablecoin issuers, together with compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions legal guidelines, and mandates that issuers maintain reserves backing the cryptocurrency. Without such a framework, Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee in an announcement warned, “shoppers face dangers like unstable reserves or unclear operations from stablecoin issuers.”
After the votes, House Republicans strongly urged the Senate to take up the second bill, which would create a new market structure for cryptocurrency.
Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., said the 294-134 vote on that legislation shows broad bipartisan support and a “massive energy” on the issue. But it is so far unclear whether the Senate would consider the House bill or try to write its own.
That legislation aims to provide clarity for how digital assets are regulated. The bill defines what forms of cryptocurrency should be treated as commodities regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and which are securities policed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In general, tokens associated with “mature” blockchains, like bitcoin, will be considered commodities.
The third bill, passed on a narrower 219-210 margin, prohibits the U.S. from offering what’s known as a “central bank digital currency,” which is like a government-issued form of digital cash.
The crypto industry has long complained that unclear laws have made it difficult to operate in the U.S. and that the Biden administration tried to regulate it through enforcement actions rather than transparent rulemaking. Getting this bill passed has been a top priority for the industry, which has quickly become a major power player in Washington thanks to heavy campaign donations and lobbying.
Advocates said the passage of the bills marks a key moment in cryptocurrency’s winding path toward mainstream adoption.
Patrick McHenry, the former chair of the House Financial Services Committee and now vice chair of the crypto firm Ondo Finance, said the legislation will have a “massive generational impact,” similar to the securities laws Congress passed in the 1930s that helped make Wall Street the center of the financial world. “These bills will make the United States the center of the world for digital assets,” he said.
While the bill has significant bipartisan support, it has also faced pushback from Democrats who say the legislation should address Mr. Trump’s personal financial interests in the crypto space.
“No one should be surprised that these same Republicans’ next order of business is to validate, legitimize, and endorse the Trump family’s corruption and efforts to sell the White House to the highest bidder,” said California Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the Financial Services panel.
A provision in the stablecoin bill bans members of Congress and their families from profiting off stablecoins. But that prohibition does not extend to the president and his family, even as Mr. Trump builds a crypto empire from the White House.
In May, the Republican president hosted a private dinner at his golf club in Virginia with top investors in a Trump-branded meme coin. His family holds a significant stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto project that launched its own stablecoin, USD1.
Mr. Trump reported earning $57.35 million from token sales at World Liberty Financial in 2024, according to a public financial disclosure released in June. A meme coin linked to him has generated an estimated $320 million in fees, though the earnings are split among multiple investors.
Some Democrats also criticised the bill for creating what they see as an overly weak regulatory framework that could pose long-term financial risks. They’ve also raised concerns that the legislation opens the door for major corporations to issue their own private cryptocurrencies.
“If this bill passes, it will allow Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to issue their own money. The bill still permits Big Tech companies and other conglomerates to issue their own private currencies,” said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.
