White House stablecoin push collides with efforts to tie crypto bills

The Hill

7 hours ago

The White House is pushing the House to quickly get stablecoin legislation across the finish line with limited changes, frustrating efforts to tie the bill to a larger crypto framework and limiting the lower chamber's ability to puts its stamp on the measure.
After the Senate passed the GENIUS Act last week, President Trump called on the House to move 'lightning fast' and get a 'clean' bill to his desk without delay.
'Get it to my desk, ASAP — NO DELAYS, NO ADD ONS,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'This is American Brilliance at its best, and we are going to show the World how to WIN with Digital Assets like never before!'
But the push to pass the stablecoin bill on its own cuts against efforts supported by some in the industry and Congress who worry that another key crypto bill — seeking to divvy up regulation of the broader crypto market — will lose momentum.
'From the House's perspective, there is a significant risk that if the House passes stablecoins without a market structure bill, the Senate will just not take up the market structure bill in a timely fashion or at all,' said Jennifer Schulp, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives.
The GENIUS Act, which lays out a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, passed the Senate last week by a vote of 68-30, becoming the first major crypto legislation to clear the chamber.
While it marked a significant milestone for the crypto industry, the stablecoin bill represents just one part of the equation.
The second key priority for the Trump administration and GOP leadership has been legislation that would clearly split oversight of the digital asset market between two regulators — the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). They hope to pass both bills by August.
Some House lawmakers have indicated they would like to tie market structure legislation, such as the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that advanced out of the House Financial Services Committee earlier this month, to the stablecoin bill and pass them together.
The House may hope to force the Senate's hand as the upper chamber moves more slowly on market structure legislation, noted Christopher Niebuhr, a senior research analyst with Beacon Policy Advisors.
The Senate version of the market structure bill has yet to be introduced, although a group of senators released a set of 'principles' Tuesday to guide the development of the legislation.
Notably, the upper chamber has appeared more on board with Trump's approach, with Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) urging the House to 'act quickly and send this bill' to the president's desk.
'President Trump is right — the time to lead is now,' Scott said in a statement last week. 'The GENIUS Act will establish clear guardrails for innovation, protect consumers, bolster national security, and ensure the next chapter of the digital economy is written right here in the United States.'
Despite Trump's pretty 'unequivocal' statement on the GENIUS Act, House lawmakers have continued to talk about working the bills together, Schulp noted.
Politico reported Wednesday that House leaders are considering voting on a package that combines the stablecoin and market structure bills next month, although they have yet to make a final decision.
'The White House's influence here is a little bit unclear,' Schulp said. 'I don't think anyone wants to intentionally upset the White House, but the House has been working on these issues for a long time and is invested in getting the whole package done, not simply finishing stablecoins.'
When asked Monday whether he plans to tie the two bills together, House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) would not commit to any particular course of action.
'What I've been doing … was taking the temperature of our members in the House about what their preferred approaches are for hitting President Trump's deadline, including House leadership,' he said at a Brookings Institution event. 'So, that's just a discussion that continues.'
However, it seems increasingly unlikely that the bills will reach Trump's desk as one. Niebuhr underscored the potential for the White House to get even more involved on crypto legislation going forward.
'The White House holds a lot of sway here,' Niebuhr said, adding, 'To the same degree that Trump is expected to weigh heavily on House lawmakers to get the reconciliation bill across the finish line in the next couple of days, it's certainly possible he throws his weight around or continues this drumbeat of pass the stablecoin bill before August.'
Combining market structure and stablecoin legislation also threatens to push the timeline on both measures back to the fall, Niebuhr said. He noted the House could still potentially move the two bills without formally tying them together.
'Even as French Hill has hemmed and hawed a little bit about what exactly he'll do, he's said that he's committed to getting crypto legislation to the president's desk on his timeline, which is just ahead of August recess,' he added.
House Agriculture Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), whose committee also advanced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act earlier this month, appeared more reconciled to the approach of splitting the two bills.
'I don't anticipate tying them together only because the Senate is behind on market structure,' he told The Hill on Tuesday. 'More than happy to send it to them. Would love them just to pass it.'
Thompson added he wants a commitment from the Senate on market structure legislation.
'I'd like to see that get done to get President Trump a victory, a success, but at the same time, I insist on a commitment from the Senate that they will get moving on market structure because that's actually more important than stablecoin,' he said.
'It's important,' Thompson continued. 'But if you don't have a regulatory oversight regime, GENIUS isn't going to be helpful to anyone.'
Schulp similarly emphasized that assurances from the Senate could be key to moving forward with stablecoin legislation on its own.
'I don't think there's a lot of interest in pushing off stablecoin regulation for months and months while market structure gets worked through, but I think the House is going to want some assurances, whatever those are worth, that if they move forward on stablecoin legislation, the Senate will take a crack at market structure legislation in a timely fashion,' she said.
Even if the House takes up the GENIUS on its own, it may not be a done deal. Several lawmakers have indicated they hope to make some changes to the bill before it passes the lower chamber.
'The House version of the stablecoin legislation is not exactly the same as the GENIUS Act,' Schulp said, referring to the STABLE Act, which advanced out of the House Financial Services Committee in April.
'There at least until recently had been conversations, public statements from French Hill and I believe others that indicated that there might still be some work to be done to harmonize the two versions of the bills, rather than the House simply swallowing the Senate's version whole,' she added.