Crypto Week 2025: How Washington Just Rewrote the Rules for Stablecoins, Exchanges, and the Digital Dollar
Khushi V Rangdhol Nov 12, 2025 23:49
During "Crypto Week" in July 2025, the U.S. established clear rules for stablecoins, favoring private tokens over a government CBDC, enhancing regulatory clarity.
What Was “Crypto Week”?
In mid‑July 2025, House leaders branded July 14–18 as “Crypto Week,” scheduling votes on three major digital‑asset bills: the GENIUS Act, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, and the Anti‑CBDC Surveillance State Act. By the end of the week, the GENIUS Act had cleared both chambers and was signed into law by President Donald Trump, while the CLARITY Act and Anti‑CBDC Act advanced in Congress and remain on the path toward full passage.
Lawmakers framed Crypto Week as “long overdue,” arguing that years of enforcement‑first policy and regulatory ambiguity were driving innovation offshore. The week signaled a clear political decision: instead of trying to shrink the crypto industry through lawsuits and ad‑hoc guidance, Washington would build a bespoke federal framework for stablecoins and digital assets—and explicitly step back from launching a retail US CBDC.
The GENIUS Act: A Federal Rulebook for Stablecoins
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act is the first comprehensive US federal statute focused on payment stablecoins. It creates a new category of “permitted payment stablecoin issuer,” covering insured depository institutions, credit union subsidiaries, and specially licensed non‑bank issuers, all subject to federal oversight—primarily by banking regulators and the OCC—rather than the SEC or CFTC.
A key shift is that payment stablecoins issued under the Act are explicitly not treated as “securities” or “commodities” under federal law, pulling them out of the SEC/CFTC gray zone and putting them into something much closer to a banking‑style regime. The law imposes strict reserve, segregation, and disclosure rules, limits what issuers can do besides issuing and redeeming tokens and safekeeping keys, and designates them as “financial institutions” for Bank Secrecy Act purposes, with full AML, CFT, and sanctions obligations.
For major dollar stablecoins, this effectively draws a line: either step into a fully regulated, bank‑like model under federal supervision, or risk being treated as outside the permitted regime with higher legal and banking‑access friction. It also preempts many state‑level licensing requirements for federally qualified issuers—reducing the patchwork of money‑transmitter and virtual‑currency laws—while keeping state consumer‑protection rules in place.
CLARITY Act: Market Structure and SEC–CFTC Boundaries
The CLARITY Act, which passed the House during Crypto Week, aims to define when a digital asset is a security and when it is not, and to allocate jurisdiction more cleanly between the SEC and the CFTC. It outlines conditions for token offerings, secondary trading, and decentralization thresholds, with the goal of giving exchanges, projects, and investors a predictable path from “investment contract at launch” to “non‑security token” over time.
By creating a formal regime for digital‑asset trading platforms and clarifying oversight boundaries, the bill responds to years of litigation and dueling interpretations from US agencies. If fully enacted, it would make it easier for centralized exchanges and potentially some DeFi interfaces to operate clearly within either securities or commodities frameworks, instead of guessing which regulator will claim jurisdiction after the fact.
Anti‑CBDC Act: Blocking a Retail Digital Dollar
The third leg of Crypto Week, the Anti‑CBDC Surveillance State Act, is designed to prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail central bank digital currency without explicit new authorization from Congress. Supporters argue that a programmable, account‑based CBDC could enable state overreach into financial privacy and crowd out private‑sector innovation in stablecoins and banks’ digital services.
By advancing this bill alongside the GENIUS Act, Congress sent a strong signal: the US prefers privately issued, dollar‑backed stablecoins under strict regulation over a government‑run retail CBDC as the primary vehicle for digital dollars. That stance contrasts sharply with China’s e‑CNY and the more CBDC‑centric strategies of some other major economies, and it positions the US stablecoin ecosystem as the main competitive instrument for extending dollar influence on‑chain and cross‑border.
Why Crypto Week Matters for Markets and Builders
Crypto Week turns the US from one of the most legally ambiguous major markets for digital assets into a jurisdiction with a clearer federal rulebook—particularly for dollar stablecoins that underpin most global trading and DeFi liquidity. For issuers, the GENIUS Act offers a path to operate like regulated financial institutions with bank‑level compliance, which could unlock broader institutional adoption but also raises the bar for capital, governance, and transparency.
For exchanges, DeFi front ends, and protocols, the CLARITY Act’s trajectory suggests fewer “surprise” enforcement actions and more conventional licensing or registration paths, while also tightening expectations around disclosures and investor protection. For the broader financial system, pairing a stablecoin‑centric model with an explicit anti‑CBDC stance reinforces the idea that the future of the digital dollar will be shaped by regulated private‑sector tokens, not a government wallet on every phone.
Sources: Global Government Fintech – overview of Crypto Week, GENIUS, CLARITY, Anti‑CBDC Acts: https://www.globalgovernmentfintech.com/crypto-week-usa-clarity-genius-anti-cbdc-acts/, Ocorian – “Crypto regulation 2025: US ushers in historic reforms”: https://www.ocorian.com/knowledge-hub/insights/crypto-week-2025-uncertainty-regulation-us-digital-asset-space, Loeb & Loeb – “Reflections on ‘Crypto Week’ and What Comes Next”: https://quicktakes.loeb.com/post/102kxqk/reflections-on-crypto-week-and-what-comes-next, Latham & Watkins – “The GENIUS Act of 2025 – Stablecoin Legislation Adopted in the US”: https://www.lw.com/en/insights/the-genius-act-of-2025-stablecoin-legislation-adopted-in-the-us, CBS News – “Trump signs landmark GENIUS Act, hailing ‘exciting new frontier’ for crypto”: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-signs-genius-act-crypto-bill/, Goodwin – Digital Currency & Blockchain Litigation Update (Crypto Week summary): https://www.goodwinlaw.com/en/insights/newsletters/2025/07/newsletters-practices-dcb-digital-currency-blockchain-q2-2025, PwC – Global Crypto Regulation Report 2025 (US section): https://legal.pwc.de/content/services/global-crypto-regulation-report/pwc-global-crypto-regulation-report-2025.pdf
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