Crypto bills move forward after nine-hour stalemate on House floor

2025-07-18 18:33:37 Primitive Reading

House Republican leaders have cut a deal to move forward with three crypto bills that were stuck in a record-long procedural vote after Republican hardliners refused to back down on central bank digital currencies.

A vote to set up floor debate on the bills was open for over nine hours — the longest in the House’s history. The measure eventually passed late on Wednesday with a vote of 217-212 in favor.

A group of Republican holdouts initially refused to support the vote unless a ban on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) was guaranteed to pass, but House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters on Wednesday that Republicans will now instead add a CBDC ban to a must-pass defense spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

House Republican leaders dubbed this week “Crypto Week” and are looking to pass a crypto market structure bill called the CLARITY Act, the CBDC-banning Anti-CBDC Surveillance Act and the stablecoin-regulating GENIUS Act — the latter of which President Donald Trump wants to sign before the weekend.

PunchBowl News reported that Scalise said the House would vote separately on the GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act as soon as Thursday, but Speaker Mike Johnson said votes on bills other than the GENIUS Act could be pushed to Friday or next week.

CBDC ban a sticking point

The anti-CBDC Republican holdouts also tripped up an earlier resolution on Tuesday for the three crypto bills.

One of the Republican holdouts who later changed his vote, Representative Keith Self, earlier said that the GENIUS Act “will allow a back door to a CBDC.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene was the sole Republican representative to vote with Democrats in opposing the measure.

The final vote of the resolution to hear debate on three crypto bills. Source: C-SPAN

The GENIUS Act, however, says the bill should not be interpreted as expanding the Federal Reserve’s authority to offer services directly to the public, which would include a CBDC.

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