A vote to consider cryptocurrency regulation legislation has been blocked in the United States Congress, with shares in some crypto companies dropping.
All Democrats in the House of Representatives joined with 12 Republicans to vote down the rules of debate for the legislation, which would have been required for the three bills to pass. These bills would have regulated stablecoins and prevented the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency.
“It’s a priority of the White House, the Senate, and the House to do all of these crypto bills,” said Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Johnson plans to hold another vote on these rules of debate tomorrow, he said.
According to U.S. President Donald Trump, 11 Republican representatives have now agreed to vote in favour of these rules of debate during the next vote. This would allow these rules to pass, opening the bills for full consideration in the House.
Among the bills that failed this procedural vote is the GENIUS Act, which passed the Senate in June. This would create frameworks for banks or other entities to issue their own stablecoins, digital currencies with their values pegged to a reference asset like a fiat currency or a commodity.
Citigroup is considering issuing a stablecoin for digital payments, the bank’s CEO said today.
The CLARITY Act, another bill up for debate, would determine when a cryptocurrency token can be defined as a commodity under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
A third proposal would have banned the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, though the Federal Reserve has not said it plans to do so. Some Republicans voted against the rules of debate because the GENIUS Act did not already include a full ban on a central bank digital currency, wrote hardline conservative Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on X.
Shares in stablecoin issuer Circle (NYSE: CRCL) fell by 4.6%, while Coinbase’s (NASDAQ: COIN) share price declined by 1.5%. Shares in both companies continued to drop in after-hours trading.
Cryptocurrency mining company MARA Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) saw its shares fall by 2.34%, but began to recover in after-hours trading. Bitcoin prices were also 0.63% lower, as of time of writing.
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