Regulatory triad: U.S. Congress shapes new crypto market rules

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How the U.S. Congress just redefined crypto policy

GENIUS Act: Stablecoins as public infrastructure

The GENIUS Act received the strongest backing in the House — 308 votes in favor, including 102 from Democrats. The bill establishes a legal framework for issuing stablecoins in the U.S., requires independent entities to handle token issuance, bans interest-bearing stablecoins, and introduces criminal liability for unbacked issuances.

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A key provision targets monopolies: major tech firms and banks must create legally separate subsidiaries to issue dollar-backed stablecoins. This so-called “Libra clause” is a direct response to Meta’s failed stablecoin project. These issuers will also be subject to antitrust reviews and must obtain approval from a Treasury-led oversight committee with veto power.

Circle openly supported the bill, calling it a win for both consumers and the global status of the U.S. dollar. The company’s Chief Strategy Officer, Dante Disparte, stated that the GENIUS Act effectively codifies the business model Circle has followed for years. Tether, for its part, announced plans to comply with the new regime as a foreign issuer — including reserve audits and potentially launching a separate U.S.-oriented stablecoin.

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The ban on yield-bearing stablecoins has sparked criticism within the DeFi community. Ironically, though, it may fuel a resurgence in decentralized protocols. If base-layer tokens no longer generate yield, users are likely to seek it elsewhere — namely in Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem. Analysts are already predicting a “DeFi summer 2.0,” drawing parallels to the last boom in stablecoin-driven on-chain activity.

CLARITY Act: Definition as protection

The second bill — the CLARITY Act — passed with slightly less but still significant support (294 votes in favor, including 78 from Democrats). Its core goal is to provide a clear legal definition of what constitutes a digital asset and to determine its nature: whether it is a security, a commodity, or a hybrid. This is a long-awaited response to years of regulatory ambiguity, during which the SEC and CFTC clashed even publicly, and crypto companies struggled to obtain official classifications for their products.

The bill is likely to undergo further changes in the Senate, where Democratic support is weaker. But even in its current form, it sends a strong message: in the U.S., digital assets will no longer exist in a legal gray zone — they are now on the path to official recognition. This could unlock latent institutional growth not just in DeFi, but also across Web3, tokenized funds, and digital bonds.

Anti-CBDC Act: The state is not the issuer

The third and most unexpected bill — the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act — passed by a narrow margin (219 to 210), with virtually no Democratic support. The bill explicitly prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) without congressional approval. The Republican argument is clear: CBDC poses a threat to privacy, allows transactional control, and risks ushering in a “Chinese-style social credit system.”

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For the crypto community, this may be the most important signal of all: the U.S. is not only legitimizing private financial innovation, but also actively restricting the government’s ability to build a centralized alternative. From 2020 to 2022, concerns over a digital dollar sparked serious debate. Now, that skepticism has become part of official policy.

What does this mean for the market?

Above all, it signals a climate shift. The United States is once again aiming to lead innovation — without stifling it. The environment is becoming more predictable: there are rules, there are standards, and there is room for private initiative. At the same time, it marks a new phase of competition between centralized stablecoins, decentralized platforms, and traditional banks — which can no longer simply embed themselves into this new infrastructure without complying with the law.

This regulatory triad is more than a set of legislative acts. It is a political stance: the U.S. is choosing a financial internet built on rights, not a state-controlled digital monopoly. The real question now is — who in the market will be the first to rise to the challenge.

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