President Donald Trump began Tuesday declaring the official start of “CRYPTO WEEK.”
“The House will soon VOTE on a tremendous Bill to Make America the UNDISPUTED, NUMBER ONE LEADER in Digital Assets,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Digital Assets are the FUTURE, and we are leading by a lot! Get the first Vote done this afternoon (ALL REPUBLICANS SHOULD VOTE YES!).”
Within a few hours, that vote plan fell apart and “crypto week” officially went off the rails.
Congressional Republican leadership had planned to push through the GENIUS Act and two other cryptocurrency-related bills starting on Tuesday. The GENIUS Act is a Senate Republican-led bill that would codify payments made with stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency with a value tied to physical assets like the dollar.
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The bill cleared the Senate on a bipartisan vote last month. But House conservatives made clear Tuesday that it won’t be so easy for the bill to actually hit Trump’s desk, voting down the rule to advance the bill and leaving leadership without a clear next step.
“We feel like we need to be dealing with this all at once and make sure that we’re pretty clear about the central bank digital currency,” said Rep. Chip Roy, one of the 13 Republicans who voted against advancing the three crypto-related bills.
Roy, alongside other members of the House Freedom Caucus, demanded that the three bills be packaged together and be sent back to the Senate. The two House bills, the CLARITY Act and the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, would regulate the broader digital assets market and ban the Federal Reserve from issuing digital currencies.
Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Tuesday’s failure on the “legislative process.”
“We have some members who want to emphasize the House’s product,” Johnson said, referring to the CLARITY Act and the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act. “Everybody is insistent that we’re going to do all three, but some of these guys insist that it all needs to be done in one package.”
“We’ll do what we always do around here and answer questions and work towards consensus. We expect that there might be some ‘no’ votes, but that’s why we thought it was important to put it on the floor and advance it, because time is of the essence on this,” Johnson added.
Trump had given congressional leaders an August deadline to get cryptocurrency legislation to his desk. House and Senate leadership initially disagreed over whether the GENIUS Act should be packaged with additional regulatory legislation penned by House Republicans. After Trump interceded, leadership in both chambers agreed to pass the GENIUS Act as a stand-alone bill.
In a Monday op-ed in The Hill, Rep. French Hill, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, touted the expected passage of the three bills in the House, saying that “the era of digital assets is no longer just a promise, it’s a national priority.”
Rep. Mike Flood, a member of the Financial Services Committee, told NOTUS the Senate has given assurances to House Republicans that they will consider some of the House’s legislative priorities.
“The Senate wants the GENIUS Act, we’ve got some assurances that the Senate is going to deal with the CLAIRITY Act in their time,” Flood said. “The House has maintained the whole time that they would like it together. But, you know, I support Chairman Hill.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty, a sponsor of the GENIUS Act, told NOTUS he has been in constant communication with House leadership and is confident the Senate bill will enjoy broad support among House Republicans.
“I think that what’s happening is that there are some broader issues than this specific legislation,” Hagerty said.
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