Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, July 17th, and today we are talking about the latest

in Crypto Week on Capitol Hill. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown,

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All right, first up today, we have an update on this absolute S show of a crypto week.

It continues and fits and starts as House Republicans struggle to reach consensus.

When we left off on Tuesday night, the House Freedom Caucus had tanked a procedural vote that

brought progress to a screeching halt. They demanded that the anti-Cbdc bill be attached to other legislation to ensure it passes. On Tuesday night, President Trump called the lawmakers to the Oval Office and claimed he had hashed out a deal to secure their support to vote in favor of the rule. On Wednesday morning, House Freedom Caucus leader Andy Harris committed his members to vote in favor of the rule, citing an agreement with the president.

He tweeted, under this agreement, the Rules Committee will reconvene later today to add clear, strong anti-CBDC provisions to the clarity legislation.

Now, while the president agreed, he didn't appear to have cleared the deal with House leadership.

Politico reported that Republican committee members believed that adding anti-CBDC language to the

Clarity Act would simply doom both bills. They wrote that an alternative was being sought in

attaching the anti-CBDC bill to another must-pass bill, such as the annual defense authorization

act or the bill to renew foreign surveillance powers. The morning featured leadership huddles

but zero progress. In the afternoon, the procedural vote was

finally called, but it seemed House Freedom Caucus members were still not on board. After voting no,

Chip Roy left the House floor telling the press, there was some sort of an agreement that doesn't

appear to exist anymore, and that's all I gotta say. In the late afternoon, the vote remained open

and committee leadership continued to negotiate with the Republican holdouts. The House Freedom Caucus voted no one by one, making the outlook increasingly grim for the second

...