President Donald Trump rallied House Republicans back into line Tuesday night, after a procedural revolt earlier in the day nearly derailed major crypto bills.
On Tuesday, the House voted 196-223 against a procedural rule during what the administration dubbed “Crypto Week.” This rule would have allowed the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act, the market-defining CLARITY Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act to advance to floor debate.
The late-evening turnaround came after Trump personally met with a few House Republicans who had blocked the bills’ advancement, securing their commitment to vote in favor of the procedural rule Wednesday morning.
“I am in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 Congressmen/women necessary to pass the GENIUS Act and, after a short discussion, they have all agreed to vote tomorrow morning in favor of the Rule,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly before 9 p.m. ET.
Many House members who voted against the bills held concerns that the GENIUS Act would leave open the possibility for a central bank digital currency, despite the bill’s language supposedly prohibiting the Federal Reserve from creating one.
Reps. Ann Paulina Luna (Fla.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Chip Roy (Texas), Victoria Spartz (Ind.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Andy Harris (Md.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Keith Self (Texas), and Andy Biggs (Ariz.) cast the Republican “no” votes.
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“I just voted NO on the Rule for the GENIUS Act because it does not include a ban on Central Bank Digital Currency and because Speaker Johnson did not allow us to submit amendments to the GENIUS Act,” Rep. Greene wrote on X.
Despite language in the GENIUS Act, Kadan Stadelmann, Chief Technology Officer at Komodo Platform, stated that it “does not include provisions explicitly preventing the Federal Reserve from creating a CBDC.”
Trump personally championed the legislation and urged Republicans to vote ‘yes’ earlier Tuesday. He said the bill would make America the “undisputed, number one leader in digital assets.”
Stadelmann criticized the GENIUS Act as “regulatory overreach, further entrenching fiat and banking interests.”
Stablecoin regulation “risks turning stablecoins into de facto CBDCs,” he told . He also warned that “the U.S.’s move to regulate stablecoins risks state interference in a market that has been functioning fine without the government becoming overly involved.”
Stadelmann stated, “Instead of focusing on regulating stablecoins, Trump should laser-focus on a Bitcoin Treasury.” He added that “Bitcoin is about reliance on independent systems rather than government-mandated ways of transacting.”
Continuous criticism has been faced by the legislation from Democrats. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said that the pending crypto legislation “will open the floodgates to massive fraud and financial ruin for millions of American families.”
The CLARITY Act was also criticized by DeFi policy experts and industry leaders. They told earlier that the bill could “decimate the novel DeFi sector in America” and would “continue the trend of forcing DeFi developers overseas.”
