Crypto Legislation Blocked, Prices Falter

So the 196 to 223 procedural vote defeat not only stalls what the administration had dubbed "Crypto Week" but also raises serious questions about the future of digital asset regulation in the United States as internal GOP disagreements over the proper approach to the crypto economy come to the surface.

The blocked legislative package contained three really significant bills that represented the Trump administration's vision for cryptocurrency regulation, and had they gone through, would have propelled prices even further. The GENIUS Act, formally known as the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, aimed to create the first comprehensive federal framework for stablecoin issuers and users. Alongside it were the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, designed to clarify the jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and CFTC in crypto oversight, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which sought to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency.

President Trump had made a last-ditch effort to rally support for the bills, taking to his Truth Social platform to urge "ALL REPUBLICANS" to "VOTE YES" and "get the first Vote done this afternoon." However, his appeal fell on deaf ears among a faction of conservative rebels led by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who voiced two primary objections to moving forward with the legislation. Greene and her allies argued that House Speaker Mike Johnson had improperly blocked members from submitting amendments to the bills while also expressing concern that the GENIUS Act failed to include a sufficiently strong prohibition against a central bank digital currency, despite the presence of the separate Anti-CBDC bill in the package.

Behind the scenes, sources familiar with the negotiations describe a more complex power struggle at play. Several members of the conservative Freedom Caucus are pushing to have the three bills combined into a single legislative package that would grant Congress greater oversight authority over cryptocurrency regulations, a move that runs counter to the preferences of the financial services committees that carefully crafted the current versions. This legislative impasse has effectively brought House business to a standstill, potentially jeopardizing unrelated Trump administration priorities including a proposed $9.4 billion recission of foreign aid and public media spending that faces a Friday deadline for congressional action under its 45-day review timeline.

The unexpected legislative setback sent immediate shockwaves through cryptocurrency markets, with Bitcoin prices dipping 2.3 percent following the vote before recovering about half of those losses in subsequent trading. The uncertainty particularly affected stablecoin issuers, with both Circle and Tether seeing their reserve assets trade at wider spreads as market participants reassessed the regulatory outlook. Publicly traded crypto companies also felt the impact, with shares of Coinbase falling nearly 4 percent in after-hours trading as investors digested the news.

Market analysts had previously assigned high odds to the passage of stablecoin regulation this month, with TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg noting that markets were pricing in an 80 percent chance of success before Tuesday's vote. The unexpected delay now raises the possibility that meaningful federal action on cryptocurrency regulation could be pushed into 2026, depending on how the political landscape evolves following the November elections.

Complicating the legislative picture further are President Trump's increasingly visible ties to the cryptocurrency industry, which have become something of a double-edged sword for the administration's policy goals. While the president's vocal advocacy has helped bring digital assets into the Republican mainstream after years of skepticism, his family's business ventures in the space have given Democrats pause about supporting what might otherwise have been bipartisan legislation. These ventures include the launch of World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm with multiple foreign investors; the recent filing by Trump Media's Truth Social platform for a cryptocurrency-heavy ETF; and multiple crypto-focused fundraising events hosted at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort this year.

As the dust settles from Tuesday's surprise vote, House leadership has indicated plans to bring a revised version of the rule back to the floor later in the day, though the path forward remains uncertain. Critical questions remain about whether Speaker Johnson will allow amendments to satisfy conservative concerns, whether any pro-crypto Democrats might cross party lines to offset Republican defections in a future vote, and what signals might come from key Senate figures like Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat whose stance could prove pivotal in any eventual compromise.

For the cryptocurrency industry, the legislative roadblock serves as a sobering reminder that even with a theoretically friendly administration in the White House, Washington's regulatory machinery moves slowly and unpredictably. Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, sought to put a positive spin on the development, telling Forbes that "this isn't the end, it's just the messy middle of a much longer process."

The ultimate outcome of this legislative struggle could determine whether the United States establishes clear rules for the cryptocurrency industry ahead of the 2026 global regulatory rollout already underway in jurisdictions like the European Union and United Kingdom, or whether American policymakers will once again find themselves playing catch-up in shaping the future of financial technology. With billions of dollars in investment capital and the nation's position as a technology leader at stake, the decisions made in the coming days may well define the contours of American cryptocurrency policy for years to come.