Crypto Week on Capitol Hill nearly unraveled before it began. Aiming to showcase Republican unity and deliver major legislative wins for the digital asset industry, GOP leaders designated this week as a milestone for cryptocurrency policy. But early on July 15, the effort faltered when a procedural vote failed in the House of Representatives. Thirteen Republicans joined Democrats to oppose the motion, derailing plans to bring three high-profile bills to the floor for debate and final vote. Markets reacted quickly: Bitcoin fell by over 3%, and shares of crypto-linked firms like Coinbase and Circle slid on fears that long-awaited regulatory clarity might again be postponed.
The package in question included the GENIUS Act, which had already passed the Senate and would establish a stablecoin regulatory framework; the Clarity Act, defining digital assets for purposes of SEC and CFTC jurisdiction; and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, designed to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a U.S. central bank digital currency. The impasse was triggered not by disagreement over the content of the bills, but over process. A group of Republican holdouts demanded the three bills be combined into a single vote, a move that risked dragging the GENIUS Act back through the Senate and delaying enactment well beyond the August recess.
Faced with this internal rebellion, President Donald Trump personally intervened to break the impasse. That same evening, he convened talks with GOP lawmakers and successfully won over most of the dissenters. By late Tuesday night, 11 of the 12 holdouts had pledged to back the procedural rule, clearing the path for a revised schedule of votes as early as Wednesday. Trump later affirmed on social media that he expected the standalone stablecoin bill could reach his desk for signing within weeks—a significant symbolic and policy win for the party ahead of a critical election cycle.
The episode underscores the growing tension between legislative efficiency and political posturing inside the Republican ranks. Trump, alongside GOP leadership, sees discrete votes on each crypto bill as the most direct path to passage. Others in the conference, however, are pushing for a bundled approach to increase leverage and avoid cherry-picked negotiations with the Senate. For the crypto industry, the legislative drama is more than procedural—it’s existential. With more than $140 million raised by crypto-friendly PACs ahead of the 2026 midterms, the sector is betting heavily on a favorable regulatory framework being codified this year.
Policy leaders in the industry echoed the sentiment that progress won’t come easily. Coinbase’s top policy officer, Faryar Shirzad, remarked that while momentum is clear, “every few steps forward there’s inevitably a step back.” Whether Trump’s intervention will be enough to overcome the deep-seated skepticism surrounding digital currencies in parts of both parties remains to be seen. But for now, the president’s move has breathed new life into a stalled process, potentially positioning the United States closer to the long-sought goal of a regulated, legitimized digital asset landscape.