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What's going on, guys? It is Wednesday, July 16th, and today we are talking about Crypto Week's

rough start. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe

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Well, friends, Crypto Week is off to a rocky start in Washington as the first procedural vote fails. Yesterday, House lawmakers voted 223 to 196 against a rule to allow the three

crypto bills to move forward to a floor vote. The agenda for the week is to finalize the

Genius Act, which deals with stable coins, as well for the week is to finalize the Genius Act,

which deals with stable coins, as well as move the market structure-focused Clarity Act and

the Anti-CBDC Act to the Senate. Getting a procedural vote through the GOP-controlled House was

supposed to be the easy part, but 13 Republicans voted against the rule to tank the agenda.

The dissenting faction was the House Freedom

Caucus, a group of hardline America-first lawmakers. Their key issue was CBDCs, with the group

forming the view that no laws should pass without strong protections. House Freedom Caucus chair

Andy Harris told Politico, people, including the House Freedom Caucus, believe that central bank

digital currency, we have to put a stake in its heart once and for all, and the action under that rule wouldn't have done it. Their concern is that the Genius Act could pass and get signed into law with zero CBDC protections. Now, it is apparently not enough to have a standalone anti-CbDC bill, but the way it's written, that's not enough for the Freedom Caucus. Marjorie Taylor Green said in a Twitter post that she voted against the rule because the Stablecoin legislation, quote, does not reflect the president's executive order on January 23rd that specifically says there should be a ban on central bank digital currency. She was also protesting that Speaker Mike Johnson had disallowed amendments to be voted on. And while the Freedom Caucus could insert an anti-CBDC amendment into the Genius Act that would force it back to the Senate and start the whole

process. allowed amendments to be voted on. And while the Freedom Caucus could insert an anti-CbDC amendment into the Genius Act, that would force it back to the Senate and start the whole process over. Punchbowls Laura Weiss reported that Chip Roy also voted no because the Genius Act lacks a hard ban on CBDCs. He commented, We feel like we need to be dealing with this all at once and make sure that we're pretty clear about the central bank digital currency. We want to know how you're going to get there once you let this one happen. Weiss added that Anna Paula Luna was a no because the current process would allow a back door to CBDCs which her constituents were against. Warren Davidson, who was booted from the Freedom Caucus last year, joined in voting against the rule despite his support for the broader crypto agenda. Davidson is currently against the Genius Act because it doesn't contain strong protections around self-custody. He told the press that, quote, the House is kind of used to not really being given any deference when we send things to the Senate. I'm going in here to see what we can do from here. Hopefully we can come up with a play that gets Crypto Week all about crypto. Summing up in case it's not clear, this is about a concern over the lack of a CBDC

basis. from here. Hopefully we can come up with a play that gets Crypto Week all about crypto.

Summing up, in case it's not clear, this is about a concern over the lack of a CBDC ban. The Freedom Caucus feels they have absolutely no guarantees the Senate will approve a ban, so they won't move forward with a piecemeal crypto agenda. This is their singular moment of leverage, and they're using it to the fullest extent. The issue is that there's no easy concession to make. GOP leaders don't want to reset progress on the Genius Act by inserting an anti-CbDC amendment or combine all the bills together. Those choices would put the entire agenda at risk rather than taking the easy win with passing the stable coin bill. Exasperated by all the political theater, Cody Carbone, the CEO of the Digital Chamber, reacted to Freedom Caucus complaints about the lack of a CBDC ban, tweeting, the anti-C surveillance act, which is also up for a vote specifically does just this. Come on now. He noted that the Genius Act is actually key to preventing a CBDC, adding, if members are interested in banning a CBDC and competing with state-issued digital currencies around the world, the way to do so is to pass the Genius Act and allow the private stablecoin market to flourish in the U.S. These bills will pass. Meanwhile, House Democrats reveled in the chaos with the financial services Twitter account posting, if you're going to declare a crypto week, maybe make sure your entire caucus is on board first. I don't know, just the thought. Brenda Peterson at Punch Bowl News commented, maybe we shouldn't be surprised Crypto Week turned into a shit show in the House, and yet. Now, it probably shouldn't be a surprise to see dysfunction in Congress if you've been paying attention to the last few years of crypto legislation, or the last few decades of lawmaking in general. But this was one of the president's signature policies, so a major factional split is not a good look. Trump started the day by cheering on Crypto Week posting, The House will soon vote on a tremendous bill to make America the undisputed number one leader in digital assets. Nobody does it better. This is our moment, digital assets, genius, clarity, it's all part of making America great again, bigger and better than ever before. And with that in mind, having Crypto Week upended, not by Democrats, but by the loudest Maga Republicans, is a huge problem for the president. By the evening, it seems that Trump had given the Freedom Caucus their marching orders. At around 9 p.m., he posted, I'm in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 congressmen and women necessary to pass the Genius Act, and after a short discussion, they've all agreed to vote tomorrow in favor of the rule. In other words, it seems like it was all a speed bump rather than a roadblock. Justin Slaughter, the Regulatory Affairs VP at Paradigm called it much earlier in the evening. Drawing on his decades of experience with Washington dysfunction, he tweeted, some of you are really demonstrating you've never followed House process all that closely. Rules get blown up, not infrequently. Jay Trevinsky, the chief legal officer, a very infund agreed, but added, got to admit, it would be very crypto and also very Congress if Congress were to pass no crypto legislation during Crypto Week, right? So it seems, fingers crossed that the cats have been hurted and were expecting at least the Genius Act to pass during Crypto Week. Given that that was supposed to be the easy one,

we'll have to see how the rest of the week plays out. Today's episode of The Breakdown is

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