Quick Summary of What Happened with the Crypto Legislation Today

TL;DR Today the House Financial Services voted on the 212-page crypto legislation passing it 35-15 with 6 Democrats crossing the aisle and joining the Republican side. Tomorrow the House Agriculture Committee will mark up the same piece of legislation where it is guaranteed to pass the only question is if it will also get Democrat support. Also still scheduled for tomorrow is a second House FInanical Services markup with this one covering a couple of Stablecoin bills. Within the last hour though a rumor has begun to circulate that it might be pushed until September though.

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Today was part one of a two-part banger of a day on Capitol Hill today. In all honesty, as someone who works on the Hill, I am not sure that this could have gone much better for crypto or the crypto industry overall. H.R. 4763, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, passed the House Financial Services Committee with BIPARTISAN support!

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While not entirely surprising as there were two Democratic members who came out earlier this week in support of the legislation I am not sure anyone would have anticipated the legislation passing the Committee 35-15. The Committee has a total of 52 people with 29 Republicans and 23 Democrats so even when looking at it as a party-line vote at least 6 Democratic Members voted in line with the Republican majority again a significant win. Here are the Democratic Members who broke with the Ranking Member Maxine Waters, Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Steven Horsford of Nevada, Wiley Nickel of North Carolina, Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, and Ritchie Torres of New York.

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Now as I mentioned this is a two-part banger with this only serving as part one. Tomorrow this same piece of legislation will be marked up by the House Agriculture Committee where it is guaranteed to pass but could surprise us again with more crossing the aisle during the passage. Additional Democratic Members breaking would further push Senate Democrats to stop the blocking of crypto legislation and actually get something done.

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At 9 AM the House Financial Services is still scheduled to meet to markup a few more bills. The most important one for crypto is H.R. 4766, the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act of 2023. Republicans have already pushed twice trying to address all of the minority's concerns and get the Ranking Member Rep. Waters to sign on. Frustratingly, rumors are starting to circulate that Chairman McHenry might once more push it to September. While this would be disappointing crypto has secured a huge win already with today's results!