Crypto Relief: House Advances GENIUS, CLARITY, Anti-CBDC Bills After Narrow Vote

[Ben Graham]

Crypto legislation appears to be back on track after US lawmakers passed a motion to reconsider three crucial digital asset bills in a narrow vote. This effort follows Tuesday’s failed attempt to advance the proposed legislation to a floor debate during the “Crypto week.”

US House Passes Motion To Reconsider

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives voted on a motion to reconsider three major crypto legislations that failed to pass their procedural vote on Tuesday. As reported by NewsBTC, Congress’s lower chamber blocked the motion in a 196-223 vote, with 13 Republicans siding with the Democrats.

Following the failed vote, Lawmakers had reportedly planned to hold a vote to reconsider the motion for later in the day, but it was ultimately scheduled for Wednesday morning.  On Tuesday night, US President Donald Trump personally met with 11 of the 12 Republican representatives needed to pass the bills, securing their support.

The lawmakers met for the second time this week to decide the fate of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act of 2025, and the anti-CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) bill.

The motion to reconsider the trio of bills cleared the House in a 215-211 vote, with all Republican representatives voting in favor this time. Now, the US House prepares to hold a new procedural vote later today and decide whether to send the three landmark bills to a final vote.

Representative Andy Harris shared on X that “House Freedom Caucus Members will be voting in favor of the rule today after reaching an agreement with President Trump last night.”

Under the agreement, the House Committee on Rules will meet today to include “clear, strong, anti–Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) provisions to the CLARITY legislation” to ensure Americans are “protected from government overreach into their financial privacy.”

Crypto Legislation Faces New Challenges

Despite the crucial approval of a motion to reconsider, the bills now face a new roadblock. Politico reporter Meredith Lee Hill revealed that “there’s another crypto mess unfolding on the House floor.”

In a series of X posts, the journalist affirmed that the potential merger of two of the three crypto legislations could pose a problem for the upcoming vote. Seemingly, the House Grand Old Party (GOP) leaders are trying to combine the House’s market structure and anti-CBDC bills after passing the floor.

However, Republicans from the House Financial Services Committee are hesitating at that plan, as it “will doom Clarity.” House Agriculture Committee Republican representatives also consider that combining the two bills could kill the CLARITY Act, arguing that “even the threat of doing this emergency rules meeting may have already done so.”

Journalist Eleanor Terret added that combining the bills could make CLARITY harder to pass because “they risk losing Dem votes over the anti-CBDC language.”

A GOP Senate staffer reportedly told Terret that they are “just hoping the House can move something, anything, so crypto legislation can survive to the next step. We have options to move forward, but no one wants another failed vote that kills momentum.”

Meanwhile, the GENIUS Act would remain a standalone bill, despite previous attempts to merge it with the market structure bill. Since it already passed the Senate, the bill only needs to pass the final House vote to head to President Trump’s desk.

Despite the legislative uncertainty, the crypto market continues to recover from yesterday’s drop, with Bitcoin (BTC) holding the $119,000 area as support.