It was reported over the weekend that the House plans to hold a single procedural vote to advance consideration of the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act as early as the week of July 7, followed by two separate votes on each bill. This strategy sets a path forward for the GENIUS Act to become law.

This decision follows a fireside chat hosted by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) with Subcommittee on Digital Assets Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets Bo Hines, where Scott underscored a timeline of immediately passing the GENIUS Act and advancing standalone market structure legislation by September 30. Laying the groundwork for this goal, Scott and Lummis, along with Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), released a set of principles for the development of comprehensive market structure legislation.

Read more below

Congress

Hearings

• Last week
  • On June 24, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Digital Assets Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Exploring Bipartisan Legislative Frameworks for Digital Asset Market Structure.
  • On June 24, the House Financial Services Committee will hold the annual Member Day hearing.
  • On June 24, the House Oversight and Government Reform Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Preparing for the Quantum Age: When Cryptography Breaks.
  • On June 26, the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will hold a hearing on From Watchdog to Attack Dog: Examining the CFPB’s (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) Chopra-era Assault on Disfavored Industries.
• This week
  • There are no hearings scheduled.
• Upcoming
  • On July 8-11, the Senate Armed Services Committee will mark up the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Legislation

• Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) and Subcommittee on Digital Assets Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), with Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) released a set of principles for the development of comprehensive market structure legislation. (Principles)(Press release)

• Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), introduced the Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure (COIN) Act to prohibit public officials – including the president, vice president, high-ranking executive branch employees and special government employees, Members of Congress, and their immediate family members – from issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing digital assets; require public officials to include digital assets in their annual financial disclosures; codify that the issuance, purchase, sale or holding of digital assets are must consider for recusal; and require stablecoin issuers to certify quarterly that public officials are not personally profiting from the issuance of such stablecoins to receive regulatory approval. (Text)(Press release)

• Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) released a discussion draft of a resolution expressing support for digital assets, blockchain technology, U.S.-led innovation in payments, and a corresponding tax regime tailored to digital assets. (Text)

Events

• The Congressional Crypto Caucus is hosting a Crypto 101 Briefing for Congressional staff on Monday, June 30.

• The Senate Banking Committee held a fireside chat on their Principles of Digital Asset Market Structure Legislation with Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC), Subcommittee on Digital assets Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Executive Director for the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets Bo Hines. (Press release)

Trump Administration

Federal Reserve

• The Fed announced that reputational risk will no longer be a component of examination programs in its supervision of banks. (Press release)

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)

• FHFA directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop proposals to consider a borrower’s crypto holdings as part of the underwriting process. (Order)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

• NIST will hold an Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board meeting on July 16-17 on matters including a briefing on NIST’s work in digital ledger technologies and update on NIST post-quantum cryptographic guidance. (Notice)

Noteworthy Quotes and Events

ADMINISTRATION

White House

• White House AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks tweeted, “Thank you to Senate Banking Committee Chair SenatorTimScott and Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair SenLummis for announcing a clear timeline and plan for comprehensive crypto market structure legislation: Bill introduced before August recess; Mark up first week of September; Done by end of September. President Trump supports CLARITY on market structure as well as GENIUS on stablecoins. Let’s get this done!”

• Sacks also tweeted, “July will be a big month, with a bill signing for GENIUS, and CLARITY going to the Senate!”

• Executive Director for the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets Bo Hines tweeted, “Honored to join Chairman Scott and Sub-Committee Chair Lummis to discuss market structure legislation and the President’s digital asset priorities. Thank you both for your leadership in making the United States the Bitcoin Superpower and crypto capital of the world!”

• On timing, Hines said at the Senate Banking fireside chat, “I’m going to echo the president’s statement, which is very clear and articulate,” Hines said. “He wants [the House] to move on GENIUS immediately and put it on his desk, and we can have a great big signing ceremony over at the White House.” (Punchbowl)

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)

• FHFA Director Bill Pulte tweeted, “After significant studying, and in keeping with President Trump’s vision to make the United States the crypto capital of the world, today I ordered the Great Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare their businesses to count cryptocurrency as an asset for a mortgage. SO ORDERED”

CONGRESS

Senate Banking Digital Assets Market Structure Principles

• In her opening statement at the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets hearing on Exploring Bipartisan Legislative Frameworks for Digital Asset Market Structure, Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said, “…to avoid some of the bumpiness that we experienced in getting through the process with stablecoins, we’re going to start the market structure component of digital asset regulation with some general guidelines and principles governing the committee’s consideration of bipartisan market structure legislation. So, we released those principles this morning. They were signed by Chairman Scott, Tillis, Hagerty, and myself. And these principles include the following: Legislation should clearly define the legal status of digital assets, meaning that Congress should draw the line between a security and a commodity in statute that has been a clear source of frustration for those who are attempting to identify their regulator. Second, jurisdiction should be clearly allocated among regulators, including that all digital assets and distributed ledger technology should not be regulated equally, but that different opportunities and risks come with different assets and forms of this technology. And we want I invite you all to provide guidance based on your experience in this particular area. Third, regulation should be modernized to foster innovation, including a new securities registration pathway for digital asset fundraising and modernization. So we can have existing rules brought up to date with respect to custody and record keeping to account for the efficiency and transparency of distributed ledger technology. Fourth, regulation should protect consumers, including requiring digital asset exchanges to be subject to comparable regulation as other centralized intermediaries and that customers should have priority in bankruptcy. Fifth, illicit finance measures should be targeted, and pro innovation. This has been an area that has vexed me trying to understand where some of the people on the Intel Committee are coming from. But I think I’m getting a clearer picture, because I got to spend a lot of time with them as we were negotiating staple coins. So, this would require adopting digital asset examination standards, and considering the extent to which distributed ledger technology can improve the work of law enforcement. And finally, financial regulators should welcome responsible innovation and promote the use of no action letters sandboxes regulatory coordination and appropriate timelines for application decisions. This industry over the last four years, has been embroiled in very expensive litigation that provided no clear path forward for complying with regulations and being innovative in the process. So that’s our goal.”

• Lummis tweeted, “Had a productive & delightful fireside chat with SenatorTimScott and BoHines this morning. Market structure legislation is crucial to positioning America as the leader in financial innovation, and making it a welcoming home for digital asset innovators.”

• Lummis also tweeted, “Getting down to business at the Subcommittee on Digital Assets hearing this week. It is so exciting to be at the forefront of innovation and making America the crypto capital of the world!”

• Lummis also tweeted, “President Trump promised to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world, and it’s our job to deliver legislation worthy of POTUS’ signature. America can’t afford to wait.”

• Lummis also tweeted, “Pro-digital assets. Pro-innovation. Pro-America. These market structure principles will guide legislation to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world.”

• Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) tweeted, “President Trump knows that our economic supremacy hinges on our ability to be a global force in the digital assets space. The United States is open for business, and I am committed to working with my BankingGOP colleagues to ensure we are the crypto capital of the world.”

• Scott also tweeted, “It’s a new era for the digital assets industry in Washington. Working with POTUS – and leaders like SenLummis and BoHines47 – we’re going to deliver regulatory clarity and drive innovation.”

Stablecoin and Market Structure Timing

• On the timeline for passage of the GENIUS Act, Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) said, “I’ve been very clear that I believe the President’s mandate of moving GENIUS Act immediately to his desk is in the best interest of the American people, and making sure that there is a timeline for market structure to be completed by September 30th.” (Press release)

• Regarding the House passing a clean GENIUS Act, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said, “All you have to do is take a look at what the president has stated publicly, and I think that’s quite important. I don’t think we should take a chance of losing this win right now.” (Punchbowl)

• Regarding moving stablecoin and market structure legislation together, House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-AR) said House and Senate policymakers, “can figure out how we’re going to move both the idea of stablecoin and market structure ahead.” (Punchbowl)

• GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) said, “Market structure is essential to any congressional action on digital assets. I expect the GENIUS Act has a path in the House, so long as it’s accompanied by the CLARITY Act.” (Punchbowl)

• Regarding the idea of having to consider an amended GENIUS Act with market structure from the House, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) said, “We went through 77 different versions of the bill here. We don’t want to go through that again.” (Punchbowl)

• Similarly, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said, “It was challenging enough to get to yes on the GENIUS Act that it would not be wise to try to combine them.” (Punchbowl)

• Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said, “The House is going to need to do what they think is best. There’s a divergence of opinion, even within the industry.” (Punchbowl)

Miscellaneous

• Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) tweeted, “The Biden admin’s hostility towards crypto stifled innovation, and President Trump has taken a 180 approach. It was a pleasure to join the Bitcoin Policy Institute Summit to discuss why we must support America’s leadership in digital asset innovation.”

• Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) tweeted, “Donald Trump and other senior administration officials have made a fortune off of crypto schemes. Today, I’m introducing the COIN Act to put a stop to this corruption in plain sight.”

• Schiff also tweeted, “Donald Trump has made over a billion from his crypto ventures. He’s cashed in on Trump sneakers, Trump bibles, and now his own Trump phone. His personal economy is doing great — even while the rest of the country is suffering.”

• Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) tweeted, “Donald Trump and his family are trying to turn his presidency into a personal ATM – essentially allowing special interests and shady foreign influence to pay huge amounts to buy access to the White House.”

• Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) tweeted, “No public official, including Members of Congress, the President, or the Vice President should be able to game the system with crypto schemes. That’s why I’m proud to work alongside Senator Schiff on this effort. New markets should remain FAIR.”

• As the newly-selected Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) tweeted, “We are going to transform how and where we communicate our Oversight message and investigations. We are going to be in all digital spaces to ensure that Americans understand Trump’s corruption and our future-forward agenda for the country.”

• During the House Financial Services Member Day hearing, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) testified, “So you’re being told that you’re investing in the biggest companies in the world. And you’re not investing in Alibaba of China, you’re investing in Alibaba, Cayman Islands, a completely different entity to things on crypto because there are two things that I think everybody in this Committee can agree on in crypto. Crypto should not be bailed out by the American taxpayer. And we shouldn’t use taxpayer money to buy crypto assets. So, the first one is the no crypto bailout act. I don’t want to see a circumstance where all of a sudden Skibidi Coin or Bitcoin or Trump coin is diving in value, and the people who invested it are somehow claiming that it is a systemically important asset. And somehow we should be bailing them out. Even crypto advocates don’t think that the taxpayer should play that role. Second is to say no federal investments in crypto we had just at this panel. Jay Powell says he does not have and does not want the authority to buy crypto. But the Treasury does have that authority that Trump has talked about a strategic Bitcoin reserve. The fact is the crypt that we should not be investing in in crypto, it’s high risk. And we’re investing in a competitor to the US dollar and giving it credibility by saying that the US dollar is the world’s reserve currency. And then crypto is a reserve currency for the reserve currency. Pepsi. Coke wouldn’t do that for Pepsi, we shouldn’t do it for crypto.”

• In remarks on Breitbart News, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said, “Trump is opening that up and making America energy dominant in a way that not only takes care of our own needs, but hopefully can help us with our allies around the world who become way too dependent upon other countries like Russia, for example… In our country, with the demand for artificial intelligence … data centers, crypto, all those things are incredibly energy intensive, and we’ve got to be looking for ways to meet that demand – and in an affordable way and in a reliable way – and get away from any dependence upon foreign countries.” (Press release)

Senate Banking hearing on The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress with Jerome Powell, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

• Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) asked questions regarding digital assets.
  • Lummis: “As you know, what always vexes me and has for the last four and a half years about the Federal Reserve is the bank supervision function, as opposed to the monetary policy function. So, I’m going to focus on bank supervision. First of all, I do want to thank you and Vice Chair Mickie Bowman for ensuring reputation risk has been removed from the bank supervision process. It was very arbitrarily used by those who were supervising on January 27, 2023, I would call it the high water mark for Operation Choke Point 2.0. The Federal Reserve Board, in coordination with President Biden’s White House, executed a coordinated attack to isolate the digital asset industry from the banking system, and while the Fed has taken steps to adopt a more balanced approach to digital assets, which I appreciate the legacy of January 27, 2023 remains with us today. So I’d like you to look at this quote. It says issuing tokens on open, public and or decentralized networks or similar systems is highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices. So my first question is, do you recognize this quote?”
  • Powell: “Yes, not super clearly, but yes I do.”
  • Lummis: “Because it’s from the Federal Reserve Board’s policy statement on section 913, of the Federal Reserve Act, which was formally adopted by the Board on January 27, 2023, so now, Chairman Powell, I want to show you another statement, and I’m sorry if you can’t see it clearly. I’ll read it to you. It’s from the genius Act, which just passed the Senate by a vote of 68 to 30 last week, and it takes the opposite position to the Board’s policy statement on issuing stablecoins on an open, public, distributed ledger. So, my question is, what has changed about the risk of stablecoins since the board adopted its policy in 2023 and now that the Congress has weighed in, at least the Senate has weighed in and sent the genius act to the house, does the board plan to withdraw the policy statement on section 913?”
  • Powell: “So I think what has changed is, if you go back, that’s a couple years ago, that was the period of high-profile failures and fraud and that kind of thing. And what’s happened is, I think, you know, the industry is maturing. Our understanding of it is improving. And in a sense, it’s coming, becoming much more mainstream. So, all of us are revisiting, you know, the things that were done during that era. And, you know, I think the current view is that, you know that it’s appropriate for, it’s always been appropriate for banks to choose their customers and to be able to undertake activities as long as they’re safe and sound. In terms of, I think I have to get back to you on 913 I think it’s a broader thing that has nothing to do with crypto. But that was, that was a piece of it we are with. We are looking at and withdrawing many of our pieces of crypto guidance from that era, though, as you know.”
  • Lummis: “And I appreciate that. I hope that by withdrawing the guidance that you’re also instructing and admonishing your bank’s supervisors to when they’re when there are efforts to you. Regulate banks that provide too much discretion to bank regulators to pick winners and losers from among the customer lists the loan portfolios of banks. It it’s antithetical to the American system of banking. And I do think that there was that kind of discretion unleashed on banks, and it had a negative impact, a real chilling impact on banks as they selected and banked certain industries and then debank other industries and other people during the last four years. So, taking the guidance documents and policy statements out is important, but also guiding the people that there are changes now and that they can no longer use their own subjective biases towards DEI and ESG and other things in supervising the banks is also a critical component of bank regulation.”
  • Powell: “I agree completely. And as you know, Vice Chair Bowman is actually a former Bank supervisor, so she’s very well placed to, you know, make that happen.”
  • Lummis: “And I realize that she as Vice Chair is more directly involved in bank supervision. I hope that you will use your RO to punctuate the importance of those changes within the bank supervision function at the Fed.”

• Lummis tweeted, “In February, I exposed the Fed’s aggressive reputation risk policies that assassinated American bitcoin & digital asset businesses. Today, the Fed announced it will scrap reputation risk as a factor in its bank supervision. This is a win, but there is still more work to be done.”

• Lummis issued a statement regarding Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, saying, “While Chairman Powell asserts that the Fed has taken significant steps to adopting a more balanced approach toward digital assets, the legacy of Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and the ramifications of these harmful policies persist,” said Lummis. “The Fed’s continued politization of bank supervision is a threat to both our financial system’s integrity and America’s competitive edge, and the days of the Fed hiding its policy bias and mismanagement are over.” (Press release)

House Financial Services Hearing on The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress with Jerome Powell, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

• In the hearing, Reps. Bryan Steil (R-WI) asked questions regarding digital assets.
  • Steil: “Today, I want to dive into two actions the Feds recently taken. to get a little additional color on yesterday, the Fed announced that reputational risk would no longer be a component in bank exams. I viewed that positively, I viewed the reputational risk as often being a catch all for political bias. I think it’s positive to depoliticize bank exams and said focus on the core and measurable risks. Could you provide color as to whether or not any new or new information came to light that led to the decision of the Fed to remove that yesterday?”
  • Powell: “I’m not aware of any new information. No, we just we just think it’s the right thing to do. And, of course, made an announcement on Monday under Vice Chair Bowmans leadership.”
  • Steil: “Why would it not have been done previously? If it’s the right thing to do? I agree with you. It’s the right thing to do. Why was it what any timeline is why that was done yesterday versus previously?”
  • Powell: “No, I think this is a problem that we came to understand as a problem over the course of the last couple of years. And, you know, began actually began considering what’s going on here. We’re hearing a lot of reports of debanking and and that sort of thing. And over the course of really 2024 came to the view that this was a serious problem that we need to address. And we’ve said that publicly and now we’ve we’ve we’re doing this in sort of the other agencies.”
  • Steil: “By the way, I appreciate you taking that action. I do agree that there were real political bias in some of those exams in particular as related to regulated entities engaged in the digital asset space, let me let me shift into the digital asset space, if I can. Another action recently taken by the Fed, the novel activities supervision program, was ended in withdrew several statements on digital asset related risks that deterred bank involvement. In particular you in the Fed and others, the Fed have spoken positively about the House and Senate work to regulate stablecoin in particular real opportunity to dollar rise, the globe will be a significant purchaser of US Treasuries following that action, by the Fed, have you seen an identifiable shift in banks or other regulated entities as relates to engagement in the digital asset space?”
  • Powell: “You know, I wouldn’t be the one to be to be picking that up first. But what I do see is a very, very significant change in the tone. And it you know, it really does reflect evolving thinking and the evolving status of the crypto industry. And I would expect over time, we’ll see more activity.”
  • Steil: “How is the Fed, evaluating overseeing banks or other regulated entities that are in the digital assets or crypto space?”
  • Powell: “Our view is that banks get to decide who their customers are. That’s not That’s not our decision. And so banks are free to provide banking services to crypto, the crypto industry to crypto companies. And bankrupt(pr) banks are also free to conduct crypto activities as long as they do so in a way that is, you know, protective of safety and soundness.”

• Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) also asked questions regarding digital assets.
  • Sherman: “And at your press conference, you said increases in tariffs this year are likely to push up prices and weigh on economic activity. And I’d certainly like to know more about that. The Treasury has our reserves, but you also have a liquidity Fund, which I believe involves buying and selling foreign currencies. And so that begs the question whether if you’re allowed to buy the euro, whether you’re allowed to buy cryptocurrencies. And, of course, the President has said that some agency the federal government should have a strategic crypto reserve. Do you or your successors have the legal right to take assets of the Fed and buy a Bitcoin or Trump coin?”
  • Powell: “No, we don’t. And we do not seek this authority. I hope very much that your successor is not someone who tries to stretch existing statutes and come to an opposite answer.”

• Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) tweeted, “Major Crypto News from Chair Powell!”

What I’m Reading This Week

• Targeted Update on Implementation of the FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers, Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

About Zero One Strategies

Zero One Strategies is a boutique government relations practice dedicated to navigating the complex landscape of U.S. federal policy in emerging technologies. As advancements in technology continue to outpace regulatory frameworks, Zero One Strategies aims to provide strategic guidance and bipartisan advocacy for innovators and businesses operating at the forefront of technological development.

The practice focuses on key areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, decentralized technologies, cybersecurity, data, and digital infrastructure, as well as the multiple policy issues impacting these sectors, including tax and financial services.

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