The U.S. House of Representatives is cooking up a clever sidestep to block the Federal Reserve from launching a central bank digital currency, a CBDC, and they’re trying to wedge it into the already-approved market structure bill.
Last Monday, the House Rules Committee leaked a draft agenda hinting at the possible marriage of the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act with the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, both stepping stones in the crypto regulation story.
Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act
The plan? Slap the CBDC ban text onto the final version of the market structure bill, like sticking an extra ketchup packet onto your burger, and then send this Frankenstein legislative monster over to the Senate.
This move could fast-track a retroactive prohibition on any Federal Reserve-issued digital dollars.
The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act barely squeaked through the House earlier in July, and now it’s hitching a ride on a bigger bill that sailed through with some bipartisan help.
Republicans had flirted with this before July’s floor vote on the GENIUS Act, which targets stablecoin regulation.
The catch was, some lawmakers insisted on explicitly banning CBDCs in that bill, creating a legislative traffic jam before summer recess.
Eventually, all three bills passed, but none fully settled the CBDC question, leaving room for this new legislative combo.
Law by 2026?
But does this House mix-and-match even stand a chance in the Senate?
The Senate’s banking committee Republicans claim their own crypto asset market structure bill, the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, is built on similar ground but insists it’s a different beast from the House’s CLARITY-based bill.
Wyoming’s Senator Cynthia Lummis, crypto’s cheerleader-in-chief, teases a banking committee vote by September’s end, with hopes that President Trump might sign it into law by 2026. Call it cautious optimism in a political maze.
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Rebuilding the trust in crypto assets
We have to admit that Senate Democrats aren’t just passive observers.
They’ve cooked up their own market structure framework, demanding tougher provisions to rebuild trust in crypto assets, a jab at Trump’s family crypto ventures that they believe shook confidence across the industry.
How or if Trump’s crypto affiliations, including American Bitcoin and his memecoin, get tangled in this bill remains quite murky for now.
Cryptocurrency and Web3 expert, founder of Kriptoworld
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With years of experience covering the blockchain space, András delivers insightful reporting on DeFi, tokenization, altcoins, and crypto regulations shaping the digital economy.
