Stablecoin bill clears House after GOP revolt, heads to Trump’s desk 

The House on Thursday passed a bill setting up a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, sending the cryptocurrency bill to President Trump’s desk and marking a major win for the industry. 

Lawmakers voted 308-122 to pass the GENIUS Act following a tumultuous “crypto week” in the chamber that saw competing GOP factions bring the House floor to a standstill for two days.

Twelve Republicans voted against the measure while 102 Democrats voted “yes.” The GOP “no’s” included Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Eric Burlison (Mo.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Russ Fulcher (Idaho), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Morgan Griffith (Va.), Andy Harris (Md.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Chip Roy (Texas) and Austin Scott (Ga.).

The bill regulating dollar-backed digital tokens now heads to Trump’s desk, where he has indicated he is eager to sign it. 

“For far too long, America’s digital assets industry has been stifled by ambiguous rules, confusing enforcement and the Biden administration’s anti-crypto crusade. But President Trump and this Congress are correcting course and unleashing America’s digital asset potential with historic, transformative legislation,” Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said at a press conference Thursday.

“President Trump promised to make America the crypto capital of the world, and today, we delivered,” he added.

The legislation’s future appeared in jeopardy less than 24 hours earlier.

A group of hard-line Republicans tanked a procedural vote on a trio of crypto bills Tuesday, freezing the floor.

Trump struck a deal to secure their support the next day, but several holdouts remained on Wednesday, as the House attempted once again to adopt a rule governing debate on the bills.  

The agreement Trump reached with the hardliners also prompted new backlash from members of the House Financial Services Committee.

The deal sought to add provisions from the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which aims to bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), to a broader crypto framework called the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.  

Earlier Thursday, the House voted 294-134 to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The anti-CBDC measure later cleared the chamber in a 218-210 vote.

After hours of deliberation on Wednesday — during which the rule vote remained open and the number of “no” votes from hardliners continued to grow — GOP leadership reached a deal to add the anti-CBDC provisions to the National Defense Authorization Act. 

Including the provisions in the must-pass legislation would put them on track to reach Trump’s desk, assuming they don’t get stripped out of the bill as it weaves its way through Congress later this year. 

The agreement convinced most of the remaining holdouts to switch their “no” votes on the rule to “yes,” allowing it to pass after more than nine hours. It easily surpassed the previous record for longest vote in the chamber, which the House set just two weeks earlier during consideration of the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill.” 

The only Republican “no” vote that remained when they finally closed the vote late Wednesday night was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.). 

With the successful adoption of the rule, lawmakers were able to unfreeze the floor and unlock consideration of the crypto bills, including the GENIUS Act. 

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, has lobbied against the crypto legislation all week, labeling it “anti-crypto corruption week” and underscoring her concerns with the president’s expanding involvement in the industry.

“Crypto, whatever people think about it, is overshadowed by a corrupt president who owns crypto and a president who basically is going to enrich himself and his family,” Waters told reporters Thursday.

The final passage of the stablecoin bill represents a key win for the crypto industry, which has long sought legislation to provide greater regulatory clarity.  

“The bipartisan passage of the GENIUS Act is a watershed moment for digital assets in the United States,” Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger said in a statement. “For the first time, Congress has moved comprehensive legislation that provides enforceable, tailored rules for stablecoins — a foundational technology for the future of finance.”

Trump, who has become a key ally of the industry in his second term, had urged House lawmakers to quickly pass a “clean” bill, frustrating hopes of tying it to crypto market structure legislation. 

Some lawmakers had hoped to tie the two bills together in order to allow the House to put its stamp on crypto legislation and ensure Congress doesn’t lose momentum before getting to market structure. 

Market structure legislation, which seeks to split up oversight of the industry between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is considered the centerpiece of crypto regulation. 

The Senate has moved much slower on market structure legislation, frustrating the House. However, the upper chamber appears poised to soon release its own version of the bill. 

Updated at 5:15 p.m. EDT