House "crypto week" could change how Americans use, save money

• It would also grant further legitimacy to an industry that has made the president and his family sudden billions of dollars.

State of play: House Republicans declared the next five days Crypto Week, sending a clear message on legislative priorities after passing President Trump's "big, beautiful bill."

• The agenda for next week consists of three bills.

One is stablecoin legislation, and sources familiar with the plans tell Axios that the Senate-passed bill, known as the GENIUS Act, will get a straight-up vote next week.

• Stablecoins are how dollars go on blockchains, and they enable super-fast, super-cheap global payments. They started as liquidity for crypto traders, but now companies use them for global payroll.
• The bill would establish rules for who could issue stablecoins and how they manage them.
• It is expected to lead to a surge of new products and participation from traditional finance firms.

How it works: The legislation would "spur more comfort among retailers and others to begin accepting stablecoins as payment," says Tony Tuths, tax principal in KPMG's alternative investment tax practice.

• Financial markets, meanwhile, could start to move funds in stablecoins — as opposed to cash — for faster settlements with less cost, he added.
• That could profoundly change how payments are made and processed in the U.S., putting pressure on traditional payment networks like Visa and Mastercard.

Market structure legislation is the other big one the table. It would create a framework for regulating broader crypto issuance and trading.

• If passed — the Senate is currently drafting its own version — it would establish a new category of registered digital assets, flashing a green light for traditional finance.
• More crypto related products would be expected to enter the mainstream market through retail brokerage accounts, Tuths says, "thereby opening a floodgate of retail capital into the crypto trading ecosystem."

The third bill slated for this week is to prevent the Fed from ever creating a digital version of official U.S. currency, or a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Conservatives oppose the concept because they think it would mean more government intrusion into peoples' private lives.

What they're saying: "It's one of these industries that, for a very, very, very long time has sought legitimization, either through getting these activities regulated at higher levels around the world, or through, of course, proving their real world use cases," Dante Disparte, head of global policy for stablecoin issuer Circle, tells Axios.

Zoom out: So why now? For lawmakers, pressure to move is coming from a couple of different places — the president promising to deliver wins for the industry, plus a trio of linked PACs with more than $100 million on hand keeping tabs on how lawmakers vote.

• It's a whole different world from when the nation's leading crypto company, Coinbase, requested rule making and got sued by the Biden administration instead.

Friction point: Several Democrats will be pushing back next week. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the top Dem on the House Financial Services Committee, is calling next week "Anti-Crypto Corruption Week," calling all three bills "dangerous pieces of crypto legislation."

• At the center of many Democrats' resistance is President Trump himself, due to his family's considerable personal investments in cryptocurrency putting a the specter of corruption risks over the process.

The bottom line: Republican leadership is likely to relish these votes, because they know 90% of their members will fall in line.

• Democrats are much more divided on the topic. Those inclined to vote against them will have to ask themselves if standing on principle will be worth a well-supported challenge, or even an unexpected primary opponent.