The U.S. House of Representatives moved forward on Wednesday with cryptocurrency legislation after former President Donald Trump met with Republican lawmakers to help secure support.
The package includes three bills and could lead to the first federal law for digital assets.
The first bill, focused on stablecoins, has already passed the Senate and will head to Trump for his signature if approved by the House. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to hold a fixed value, often tied to the U.S. dollar, and are used for faster and lower-cost digital transactions.
The House is also set to consider a second bill that outlines market structure rules for crypto products. This bill aims to clarify when certain digital assets are considered commodities and not subject to oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Senate has not yet addressed this measure.
A third bill, supported by conservatives, seeks to block the Federal Reserve from creating its own digital currency. Some lawmakers say such a currency would give the government too much control over financial transactions.
Fed leaders have said they are not working on a digital currency plan.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said the third bill would be added to a separate defense authorization bill as part of a larger compromise.
House Republicans had failed to advance the legislation on Tuesday, when some members voted with Democrats to block a procedural step. After Trump’s meeting with key lawmakers, Republican leaders held several hours of talks to win over holdouts and allow the bills to move forward.
The votes followed more than nine hours of private discussions between lawmakers about the structure of the package.
