A Congressional Review action could soon move on the IRS's recently updated decentralized finance broker rule.

Why it matters: With strong backing from the crypto industry, passage of the Congressional Review Act resolution would be the latest example of Congress's newfound support for digital assets.

Driving the news: The Blockchain Association went out with a letter signed by 75 of its members yesterday urging congressional leadership to move Senate Joint Resoution 3 swiftly.

• Members of the association also plan to head to the hill on Feb. 26.

What they're saying: "The DeFi broker rule, finalized in the waning days of the Biden administration, represents regulatory overreach that fundamentally misunderstands the technology it attempts to regulate and ignores Congress's intent," the letter says.

Catch up quick: The IRS-revised definition of a "broker", which applies broker reporting requirements to DeFi, was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 30.

• It followed from the fight over the Biden administration's $1.2 trillion infrastructure legislation, which expanded the definition of a broker in order to raise more money to fund the measure.
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) offered the CRA resolution (along with several others) to kill it shortly after the new Congress began.

How it works: The Congressional Review Act gives Congress a short window in which it can strike down an entire rule from the executive branch, by passing a resolution through both chambers.

• It also has to be signed by the president.

Flashback: Congress attempted to use congressional review to strike down SAB 121, the SEC's controversial rule for custody.

• The resolution passed both chambers, but it was vetoed by the president. (The new SEC later struck it down).
• It would have been tough to make the argument that the resolution passed within the required window.
• That said, Cruz's resolution is still within the window of 60 days, with some caveats that can extend it.

By the numbers: Cruz's resolution is up to 12 cosponsors as of this writing.

• It was discharged from the Senate Finance Committee by petition on Feb. 12.

Zoom out: In January, a trio of crypto advocacy groups sued over the rule in federal court, arguing that it fails to take into consideration the decentralized nature of the technology.

What we're watching: Multiple sources on the Hill tell Axios that action could happen on this next week, but — obviously — Washington has a lot on its plate lately.

A SPAC deal has brought a bitcoin-based personal finance app to the public markets.

Why it matters: Every time a crypto firm goes public, we get a bit more transparency into an industry that engenders lots of skepticism.

Driving the news: Fold went onto the NASDAQ yesterday, through a merger between Fold Inc. and FTAC Emerald Acquisition Corp., a SPAC, which was announced last year.

• It's trading under FLD, and was around $10 this afternoon, down from yesterday when it was trading most of the day at around $12.

What they're saying: "Today was a pivotal moment for Fold, as we became the first publicly traded bitcoin financial services company," Will Reeves, CEO of Fold, tells Axios in an email via a spokesperson.

By the numbers: Fold holds more than 1,000 BTC. Public companies holding BTC have become a bit of a thing.

• According to an investor presentation shared with Axios, Fold has over 500,000 accounts and made $24 million in revenue last year.
• It anticipates being able to greatly expand that by spending much more heavily on marketing in 2025.

How it works: Fold has become a personal finance application, where a person can do basic financial operations, like receiving their paycheck, paying bills and buying bitcoin.

• It has a debit card already, and it recently announced a credit card that provides rewards in bitcoin (or satoshis, the smallest unit of a bitcoin).

💭 Brady's thought bubble: Bitcoin rewards on a payment card are a way to dollar cost average into bitcoin without really thinking about it.

• Plus, you never know how the value of your "points" on other cards might change, but 1 BTC = 1 BTC, as they say.

Texas was the first state to make its own moves to emulate President Trump's idea of governments stashing bitcoins.

Why it matters: If the federal government and multiple states end up sitting on the original cryptocurrency, that will give a lot of Americans indirect exposure to the asset, whether they like it or not.

The latest: Senate Bill 21 got a hearing in a Texas Senate committee yesterday, but no further action was taken.

Friction point: The new legislation takes a stronger position on bitcoin than a previous bill introduced in December.

• That effort, House Bill 1598 from Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, would simply authorize the state to accept donations of bitcoin and to provide for certain rules about how it should be stewarded.
• This new resolution actually opens the door up to the state buying bitcoin.

Zoom out: Plenty of states have kicked around the idea of bitcoin reserves, but it might be that it's just an easy way to get a headline in state newspapers.

What we're watching: Lee Bratcher of the Texas Blockchain Council tells Axios he expects Senate Bill 21 to get voted out of committee on Tuesday.

• Bratcher noted that Texas is already a "global energy powerhouse and the recognized leader for Bitcoin mining," but the legislation would further that leadership position.

More money was lost on the launch of the Argentinian meme coin, LIBRA, than the winners made, according to new on-chain research by the crypto data firm Nansen.

Why it matters: It's a sign that meme coins have reached the dark phase where parasites dominate the market.

Zoom out: Another report released this month took a look at lots of political meme coins that came out, and found them overwhelmingly to be money losers that never recovered from whatever initial enthusiasm they mustered.

• 97% of them are 80% below their all-time high.
• 77% of all meme coins were Trump-related.

Yes, but: You could say the same of the whole crypto market. The top tokens cover most of the value. The long tail is (and always has been) mostly garbage. In fact, that's true about just about everything.

• However, during the election, we followed the big tokens, such as BODEN and MAGA, and you really could see political events reflected in their price.

💭 Brady's thought bubble: But that doesn't mean meme coins are good investments. Especially now that the robbers have their game down.

• The meme coin space is full of pirates now. The fun days are over.

Worth your time: Lex Sokolin took a deep dive into the mechanics of how traders got fleeced with LIBRA.

• TL;DR — mere mortals never stood a chance.

In November, a Texas court struck down the SEC's redefinition of a dealer under its rules, after a lawsuit by crypto advocates.

The latest: The new Trump-era SEC withdrew its appeal of the decision yesterday.

Flashback: The SEC revised its definition in February 2024 to take in more market participants.

• In particular, it would have applied to people who supply liquidity to automated market makers, such as Uniswap and Curve Finance, which the industry objected to.

The bottom line: It finalizes another loss amidst the many such cases for the agency under Gary Gensler's leadership.