The House of Representatives is branding this week Crypto Week on Capitol Hill, taking up three key pieces of legislation that could lay the foundation for federal regulations for digital assets.
One bill expected to make it to the president’s desk this week is the GENIUS Act, which has already passed in the Senate.
“It brings some regular regulatory clarity for the stable coin issuers and offers a number of consumer protections,” said Summer Mersinger, CEO of the industry group Blockchain Association.
Another bill up for consideration is the CLARITY Act, which would “create a federal regime where we're not just going to regulate these people as custodians of people's money,” said Peter van Valkenburgh, executive director of the nonprofit Coin Center. Instead, when it comes to crypto companies, “we're also going to regulate them as the retail, highly volatile exchanges that they are.”
The House will also work on legislation that would block the government from issuing a digital currency. With all these bills, it’s something of a moment, according to Chris Brummer, a law professor at Georgetown.
“For the first time, you're going to have some rules that are very specifically geared towards crypto, but there's going to be a lot of necessary work done by the regulatory agencies to flesh those rules out,” he said.
But Brummer predicts the rollout will be a lot faster than many expect.