House Passes Crypto Bills as Trump Pushes for “Crypto Capital” Status

The US House of Representatives just made a big move on crypto — passing three major bills that could shape how digital currencies are handled across the country. One of them is now headed straight to President Donald Trump’s desk, while the other two still need to clear the Senate.

The votes come during what the Trump administration is calling “crypto week” — part of a broader push to make the US the “crypto capital of the world.” But the excitement isn’t without controversy. Critics warn that the largely unregulated crypto space could easily be used to hide shady money or foreign influence, especially with Trump and his family so closely tied to the industry.

The bill heading to Trump is the GENIUS Act, which focuses on stablecoins — cryptocurrencies that are pegged to something stable like the US dollar. It’s designed to set up some basic rules and protections for consumers.

“Payment systems are undergoing a revolution,” House Financial Services Chair French Hill said during Thursday’s debate. The GENIUS Act, he added, will “ensure American competitiveness and strong guardrails for our consumers.”

The bill cleared the House with a solid 308-122 bipartisan vote after already passing the Senate.

Another bill — which lays out a new regulatory structure for the crypto market — also made it through the House but by a tighter margin, 294-134. It’s now in the Senate’s hands, where lawmakers could tweak it further.

This legislation is meant to clear up confusion over who regulates what — drawing the line between cryptocurrencies treated as commodities (overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and those considered securities (handled by the Securities and Exchange Commission). Basically, it’s about sorting out whether your crypto is more like digital gold or a piece of a company.

Then there’s the third bill, which passed by an even slimmer 219-210 vote. That one would ban the US government from launching a “central bank digital currency” — in other words, no digital version of the dollar issued by the Federal Reserve. That bill is also off to the Senate.

With input from Al Jazeera