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## CNBC Crypto World, July 16, 2025 [00:00] [00:00] Today, Bitcoin rebounds after lawmakers [00:02] get plans for crypto regulation back on [00:04] track. And head of policy for the Bitcoin Policy Institute, Zach Shapiro, breaks down the crypto regulation bills currently sitting in the House. Welcome to CNBC's Crypto World. I'm Tana McKiel. Crypto prices and several ## Crypto on the rise [00:20] [00:21] related stocks rising this morning as [00:23] Congress's crypto week gets back on [00:25] track. Markets stumbled last night after the House failed a procedural vote that would bring key crypto regulation bills up for consideration. Republican lawmakers who previously voted no now seem to be on board and prices are rebounding. As of noon Eastern, Bitcoin rose to $119,000. [00:42] Ether climbed to 32.46 and Salana's Soul token rose to 16854. Let's take a look at some cryptofocused stocks. Circle jumping 12 and a half% and Coinbase gaining nearly 3% after both closed lower in the previous session. Ether Treasury stocks continued [00:58] their rally led by Bitmine which surged [01:01] 19% as of midday after Peter Teal bought [01:03] a stake in the company. Others also climbing including Sharplink up 24% and Bit Digital which gained 15%. ## The headlines [01:11] [01:11] Okay, let's talk more about Crypto Week [01:13] in Washington DC. As we mentioned, cryptocurrencies and cryptoreated stocks seesawed after the House failed to approve a measure to bring two key pieces of legislation up for consideration. The stable coin bill known as the Genius Act, which the Senate passed last month, and the far more complex market structure bill known as the Clarity Act. Industry players, including Coinbase, hope to see both of these bills move forward together, but their failure to do so was a disappointment to much of the market. [01:37] Hours later, President Trump said in a [01:39] truth social post that he'd met with [01:41] House Republicans who kept the bills [01:42] from advancing that they'd changed their [01:44] minds in that meeting and were prepared [01:46] to vote to move the legislation forward. And then just this afternoon, the House approved the procedural vote to consider crypto regulation. Stay with CNBC.com for the very latest. Next, House [01:56] Financial Services Committee Chairman [01:57] French Hill joined Squawkbox this [01:59] morning to give his take on the [02:01] Republican opposition that led to [02:02] yesterday's failed vote. Well, I think some uh members in the House really would like to see Tom Emmers work to legislatively block a central bank digital currency being issued, make sure it's turned into law, meaning that the bill doesn't just pass the House and then go over in the sit in the Senate and not garner 60 votes and then become law. So that is uh one of the core reasons why they wanted to talk to the speaker and have some more discussions with President Trump and how to make sure that they could get that bill into law. All right, sticking with the latest on Crypto Week on Capitol Hill for our main story. Cryptoorld's Talia Kaplan spoke [02:44] with attorney Zach Shapiro, head of [02:46] policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute [02:48] about the developments in DC and why he [02:50] thinks Congress should focus on passing [02:51] the Genius Act. ## Zack Shapiro of Bitcoin Policy Institute [02:53] [02:53] It's crypto week on Capitol Hill and [02:55] yesterday several crypto-related bills [02:57] failed to clear a key procedural hurdle [03:00] in the House. What's your reaction to all that chaos we saw on Capitol Hill yesterday? And what do you think this means for crypto regulation? What happens next? [03:08] I think to be honest, this is a bit of a [03:10] failure on the industry's part to play [03:12] this the correct way politically. Uh, I think it was a mistake to have all three of these bills voted on at the same time as opposed to starting with the Genius Act, which is a sort of important mustpass and what should be uncontroversial bill to provide a regulatory framework for stable coins. Um, and then I think it's a it's a failure to educate some of the the key folks involved. I think there are some uh Republicans who feel like they don't really understand what this legislation is about uh and and the crypto industry needs to do a better job to fix that. [03:41] And I think that there are some members, [03:42] especially of the Freedom Caucus, who [03:44] are a little bit confused about the [03:45] difference between a private stable coin [03:46] and a central bank digital currency. Uh, and that we as an industry need to do a better job uh describing why those two things are distinct and should not be treated the same way. Um, but I think that the future of crypto legislation really does sort of hang on whether we are able to get the Genius Act specifically passed into law or not. If we do so, I think that will provide momentum for future legislative efforts. [04:08] And I think if that doesn't happen, it's [04:10] going to be very hard to convince uh [04:12] House leadership to take up crypto [04:14] legislation in the future. And we're going to dig deeper into these three bills in just a second. But the measure had been widely expected to pass. And the failure of the rule yesterday was a rare case of House Republicans refusing to take direction from President Trump, who urged them to vote yes in a post on his Truth Social site. What does that signal to you? [04:33] Yeah, I I think it signals sort of I [04:36] think there are three reasons that [04:37] didn't happen. uh and each have a different signal. Um one of them is the decision to put all of these three bills together, which I just think was a tactical mistake. Uh I think they should, you know, a vote on each one of them might have gone differently. I [04:48] think the the second is I think there [04:50] are sort of moderate uh Republicans who [04:53] don't feel great about the way that the [04:55] big beautiful bill uh went through and [04:57] political pressure they received there. Uh maybe, you know, they don't feel like they understand these crypto bills well enough uh and and they just need to kind of wrap their mind around them a little bit more. for and I think there are efforts underway to do that. And then the third is frankly there are some parts uh of the Republican party um that I think have fallen prey to either misinformation or in some cases sort of borderline conspiracy theories about uh what stable coins are and how they operate. And I I think that a couple of [05:24] the defections on the right are are just [05:26] because of that sort of misinformation. Now, as you mentioned, one of the three bills in limbo after that failed vote is the Genius Act stable coin regulation bill, which, as you noted, the Senate passed last month with some Democratic support. You posted on X yesterday that Congress should focus on passing the Genius Act. Why do you think that should be a focus and what would change for the industry if that stable coin bill becomes law here in the US? [05:51] Absolutely. So, I think there are two primary reasons to pass the Genius Act now. Uh, one is that it's just good policy. Uh there's some concern uh among Americans that stable coins are not adequately backed by dollar or dollar equivalent reserves like treasury bills. [06:05] Uh the Genius Act would provide consumer [06:07] protection to make sure that if you have [06:08] a stable coin, it is redeemable on a [06:10] onetoone basis for dollar and a full [06:12] reserve model. Uh it also provides some insulation uh from admin, you know, White House politics between administrations for companies uh or or financial institutions like banks that want to use uh stable coins which are are frankly more efficient ways to move dollars than the legacy banking rails or Swift or Fed now. Um that they can go ahead and use those rails and that the rules won't change just because there's a new president in the future. So that's really important. Um and it's also [06:39] really good policy uh because stable [06:41] coins are good for the US. They provide a very large source of demand for treasuries for US sovereign debt. Uh our Treasury Secretary Scott Sen is has estimated that they could provide at least$ two trillion dollars of demand uh for for US government debt which is really helpful in keeping yields down which is a a real priority of this administration and good for the dollar. And then it proliferates dollars around the world to places that will a provide demand for dollars which is good for the the status of the world reserve currency and and b is really good uh for people especially in authoritarian countries who don't have access to US bank accounts or and for whom it's very dangerous and difficult to get access to physical cash. So it's good policy. The [07:18] other reason to pass it uh really [07:20] specific to the digital asset you know [07:22] in crypto industry is that it's going to [07:24] be very hard to pass any kind of crypto [07:26] legislation if we don't get this one [07:28] through. This should be the least controversial uh sort of most modest piece of legislation. It's easier to wrap your mind around stable coins than it is on the difference between a utility token and a memecoin and a security and a commodity. And you know, stable coins, I think, other than Bitcoin are the only part of the digital asset industry that so far has found robust product market fit. And there [07:47] there are just fewer regulatory issues [07:48] around Bitcoin. And so if we get this bill passed, I think that helps create momentum for other strong industry priorities like a market structure bill um and you know amending the securities laws to do all sorts of exciting web 3 stuff. And conversely, if this Genius Act falls flat, if we can't get this across the finish line, it's going to be very hard anytime soon uh to convince sort of House leadership or Senate leadership uh to to really take up crypto legislation. So, I really do think, you know, the Genius Act for the industry is a mustpass bill if we're going to move forward with any of our legislative priorities. [08:21] Makes sense. Now, focusing on the Clarity Act, that bill would establish rules for whether an asset is regulated as a security by the SEC or as a commodity overseen by the CFTC. What do you think about this bill? The biggest legislative priority for Coinbase is that market structure package. In fact, [08:37] the crypto exchange launched a six-f [08:39] figureure campaign last week urging [08:41] Congress to pass the Clarity Act in an [08:43] effort to get clear rules for crypto. Do you also think the Clarity Act should be a top priority? I know you mentioned Genius Act should definitely be a priority, but what about the Clarity Act? I I think the Clarity Act or a similar market structure bill should be a priority, right? Maybe not this week in [08:58] the same way the Genius Act, I think, [08:59] really does need to pass now. But we saw in the previous administration uh that when you don't have clear rules, that can be abused by regulators who don't like the digital asset industry to do regulation by enforcement. And instead of putting out clear rules of the road uh when large companies like Coinbase ask for those rules of the road, instead they're met with subpoenas and wells notices and and you know, civil complaints. Um so really important for the industry. And and then you know [09:24] there's one part of the clarity act that [09:26] I actually think is maybe substantively [09:28] the most important piece of crypto [09:30] policy out there which is section 110 of [09:32] the clarity act draws an important [09:34] distinction between non-custodial crypto [09:37] technology which is just code. It's technology and a money service business or money transmitter which is a regulated type of financial institution. And the line between those two things is currently being blurred in two federal criminal cases against the developers of Tornado Cash and Samurai Wallet. Uh where you know the the current illicit finance law presumes that if you have an electronic transfer of money, there is a financial intermediary like a bank in between that's facilitating that transfer because that was necessarily always true before the advent of blockchain technology. But with [10:08] blockchain technology, you can have [10:09] peer-to-peer electronic transfers where [10:11] it's really one person directly [10:12] transacting with their counterparty [10:14] without a financial institution in the [10:15] middle. There's just code. And so we're at this critical point uh in sort of the the juristprudence and what judges decide about crypto cases. uh whether they are going to sort of update the laws or recognize the fact that we now have digital peer-to-peer transfers versus imputing a financial institution where there isn't and then as we see in these criminal cases holding the software developers that just make neutral tools accountable. And so there [10:39] is that particular part of the Clarity [10:40] Act I really do think is is almost sort [10:42] of like a a policy emergency that we [10:44] need to pass something like that. Okay, that's all for Crypto World today. We'll be back again tomorrow and we'll see you then.