Crypto

What’s a stablecoin? House passes landmark bills to regulate the cryptocurrency

Published

6 months ago

July 17, 2025

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What’s a stablecoin? House passes landmark bills to regulate the cryptocurrency

The Republican-controlled House on Thursday passed landmark legislation to regulate stablecoin in a big win for the cryptocurrency industry.

The GENIUS Act creates a regulatory framework for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency tied to the value of an asset like the U.S. dollar.
Advocates say the bill will protect consumers.
Democrats have raised concerns about President Trump’s financial ties to the crypto indusry.
Trump last year launched World Liberty Financial, which issued a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, and raised raised $550 million selling a different crypto coin known as $WLFI.
Trump also held a dinner in May for the top purchasers of the $TRUMP meme coin, owned by an affiliate of The Trump Organization.

WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled House passed a trio of bills on July 17 that amount to a big win for a cryptocurrency industry that has helped make President Donald Trump tens of millions of dollars.

A piece of the landmark legislation package, dubbed the GENIUS Act, creates a regulatory framework for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency tied to the value of an asset like the U.S. dollar.

Advocates say the primary bill will help protect consumers and set industry standards that could allow stablecoins to become mainstream for digital payments and other financial instruments.

The main bill, approved by the Senate in June, passed the House by a vote of 308-122, with all Republicans and several Democrats voting in favor. It is now headed to Trump’s desk to be signed into law.

“This is a historic opportunity for the United States. After years of work, American innovators are one step closer to having the clarity they need to build here at home while ensuring the future of the digital economy reflects our values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free-market competitiveness,” Republican Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota said in a statement.

However, House leadership had hit unexpected hurdles midweek while trying to advance the three crypto bills, with the first procedural votes on July 16 breaking a record for the chamber by lasting about nine hours.

One measure barring the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank for cryptocurrency was a particular sticking point, with Republicans debating how to best set the bill up to succeed in a future Senate vote. It passed the lower chamber on July 17 entirely with GOP support in a 219-210 vote that fell along party lines.

The Clarity Act, which defines when a cryptocurrency is a security or a commodity and clarifies the Securities and Exchange Commission’s jurisdiction over the entire financial sector, also passed the House on July 17 and must head to the Senate.

Senate Democrats have voiced concerns about Trump’s connections to the cryptocurrency industry.

“The GENIUS Act will accelerate Trump’s corruption by supercharging the size of the stablecoin market and the reach and profitability of USD1,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, on the Senate floor in May.

One of the biggest money-making ventures for Trump was World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency platform launched last year. It brought in $57.3 million and it launched USD1, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin.

Trump also held a dinner in May for the top purchasers of the $TRUMP meme coin, owned by an affiliate of The Trump Organization.

However, supporters of the bill maintained that it could help safeguard investors and help Americans have greater access to the financial system.

“The golden age of digital assets is here, and the U.S. will lead,” said Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil in a statement.

Contributing: Riley Beggin, Medora Lee and Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY

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Crypto

XRP Positions as Institutional Rail While RLUSD Enters Real-World Finance

Published

7 hours ago

January 28, 2026

Press Room

XRP Positions as Institutional Rail While RLUSD Enters Real-World Finance

XRP is cementing its role in live institutional payment infrastructure as Ripple’s RLUSD anchors regulated stablecoin settlement, signaling blockchain rails are now trusted, production-grade systems for global liquidity, cross-border payments, and high-value financial flows.

Crypto

Crypto Crime Wave Fueled by Chinese-Language Money Laundering | PYMNTS.com

Published

19 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Crypto Crime Wave Fueled by Chinese-Language Money Laundering | PYMNTS.com

Cryptocurrency laundering was an $82 billion problem last year, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (Jan. 27), citing data from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

Chinese-language money laundering networks made up $16.1 billion of that total as they play an increasing role in crypto crime, the report said.

“These are groups that are growing exponentially,” Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, told Bloomberg, per the report. “We’re talking about growth of over 7,300 times faster than other illicit flows.”

Although China has outlawed crypto transactions, illegal activity continues as the government chiefly focuses on behavior that threatens capital controls or financial stability, according to the report.

The networks “have really embraced cryptocurrencies,” said Kathryn Westmore, a senior associate fellow at the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI, per the report, adding that crypto provides “a way to launder the proceeds of cash-generating criminal activities, like drugs or fraud.”

The news followed a warning from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in August, which said Chinese money laundering networks are now among the most significant threats to the American financial system, helping fuel the operations of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels.

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“The networks have become effective partners because they can move cash quickly, absorb losses and leverage demand from Chinese nationals seeking to bypass Beijing’s strict currency controls,” PYMNTS reported Aug. 29. “By pairing cartel dollars with Chinese demand for U.S. currency, these networks have created what FinCEN called a ‘mutualistic relationship’ that strengthens both sides.”

Meanwhile, Eric Jardine, head of research at Chainalysis, discussed last year’s record-setting levels of crypto crime with PYMNTS in an interview published Monday (Jan. 26). Around $154 billion flowed to illicit addresses, the most ever recorded, and there was a 160% increase in illicit volumes.

“But treating that number as evidence of runaway criminal adoption may miss the more consequential story,” PYMNTS wrote. “What changed in 2025 was not merely volume, but the identity of the actors, the scale at which they operated, and the implications this has for banks, regulators, and the future architecture of financial blockchain compliance.”

The true inflection came from “a shift in who’s doing what,” Jardine said, adding that in 2025, nation states, most notably Russia, began taking part “in earnest in the crypto ecosystem,” chiefly through sanctions evasion.

Unlike earlier state-linked activity, like North Korea’s hacking campaigns, this was not marginal behavior at the edges of the system, but “industrial-scale financial activity conducted in plain sight,” PYMNTS wrote.

Crypto

Fixing BTC’s Quantum Issue Tops All Bitcoin Development Priorities, Says Willy Woo

Published

1 day ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Fixing BTC’s Quantum Issue Tops All Bitcoin Development Priorities, Says Willy Woo

Quantum risk is emerging as a decisive hurdle for bitcoin’s institutional future as sovereign investors weigh long-term resilience, pushing gold and BTC into sharper focus amid debt cycles, macro uncertainty, and geopolitical realignment, according to on-chain analyst Willy Woo.