US Lawmakers Launch ’Crypto Week’—Here’s Why It Matters in 2025
Washington's crypto reckoning begins—with more at stake than ever.
### The Capitol's Crypto Clash
Lawmakers dive headfirst into digital asset debates as Bitcoin flirts with new highs and DeFi reshapes finance. No vague promises this time—regulatory frameworks are on the menu.
### Three Bills That Could Change Everything
From stablecoin oversight to exchange accountability, DC's playing catch-up with a market that's already moved trillions. Spoiler: Wall Street lobbyists hate two of them.
### The Institutional Endgame
BlackRock's ETF approval was just the start. Now traditional finance wants in—but only if they can rewrite the rules first. Cue the 'national security concerns' theater.
Closing thought: Nothing unites politicians faster than smelling fresh tax revenue—except maybe seeing bankers lose their 3-martini lunch privileges.
What Each Crypto Bill Does, And Where It Stands
The GENIUS Act, which cleared the Senate 68-30 in June, would require any issuer of a crypto stablecoin to hold reserves “backed one-to-one by US currency or other similarly liquid assets” and to publish a monthly breakdown of those reserves. Because the bill has already passed the upper chamber, a clean House vote would send it directly to President Trump, who has publicly promised to sign it.
The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act (H.R. 1919) would prohibit the Federal Reserve from “using a central bank digital currency to implement monetary policy” and bar any Fed-issued retail CBDC altogether. The bill advanced from committee in May but lacks a Senate companion with the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster—precisely the bottleneck Davidson and other skeptics highlight.
The 236-page CLARITY Act carves crypto assets into three buckets—securities, commodities, and “permitted payment stablecoins”—and removes the last two from the statutory definition of a security. Section-by-section summaries note that the measure directs the SEC and CFTC to write parallel rulebooks and creates provisional registration regimes for exchanges, brokers, and custodians. Unlike GENIUS, CLARITY has not yet been taken up in the Senate; Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott has promised a hearing “by the end of September,” but no legislative text exists in that chamber.
Democrats, who were pivotal in sending GENIUS through the Senate, are signaling sharper resistance in the House. Rep. Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on Financial Services, derided the GOP branding as “‘Anti-Crypto Corruption Week,’ calling all three bills dangerous pieces of crypto legislation.”
The legislative drumbeat has coincided with a fresh all-time-high in Bitcoin above $121,000 and a rally in altcoins. Independent trader Cas Abbé summed up the mood via X: “US House has designated July 14–18 as ‘crypto week’…It’s expected that all of them will be passed in 2025, which will set the stage for a massive rally.”
At press time, the total crypto market cap was at $3.75 trillion.
