18 Jul, 2025

Trump Signs Stablecoin GENIUS Act, Cementing First Major Crypto Framework in US Law

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill that would create a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins, marking the first significant crypto-related legislation to be signed into law.On Friday afternoon, Trump signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins, or GENIUS, as it’s more commonly known, which Trump joked on Friday was named after him.“This afternoon, we take a giant step to cement American dominance of global finance and crypto technology as we sign the landmark GENIUS Act into law,” Trump said at the signing ceremony.“They’ve come a long way since the Biden administration, when they had no idea what were you all talking about and half of you were under arrest for no reason,” Trump added.Trump called the signing a “massive validation” for the crypto industry.The bill would create a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins, requiring stablecoins to be fully backed by U.S. dollars or similarly liquid assets, mandate annual audits for issuers with a market capitalization of more than $50 billion, and establish guidelines for foreign issuance.GENIUS was passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives 308–122 on Thursday. The bill had already been passed in the Senate, thereby sending it to Trump’s desk after passage in the House. The path to passing GENIUS, along with a larger crypto market structure bill and an anti-central bank digital currency bill, was met with some speed bumps as some Republicans bucked their colleagues and voted no in two procedural votes.Trump also nodded to crypto executives in the room, including Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.As of July 18, Tether’s USDT made up $162 billion in total stablecoin supply, while Circle’s makes up about $63 billion.Excitement bubbled on X among White House leads and crypto advocates ahead of the bill signing.Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, said he was on his way to the signing of GENIUS.“En route to the @WhiteHouse for the historic signing of the GENIUS Act, one of the most transformative pieces of legislation in decades,” Allaire said in a post on X. “Global financial system, welcome to the Internet!”Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley said he was honored to be at the White House today.“GENIUS is the first major digital asset legislation to clear Congress after years of public and private effort led to this bipartisan milestone,” he said in a post on X. “Taking a moment to appreciate what it took to get here and excited for what is coming next.”Coinbase executives also said they were going to the signing on X, including Coinbase CEO Armstrong, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal and Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad.The White House’s Bo Hines also posted about the bill signing.“What’s crypto week without a little bit of volatility?” said Hines, executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, in a post on X on Thursday. “Who’s ready for a bill signing tomorrow?”Before GENIUS was passed on Thursday, some Democrats voiced concerns about Trump family-run World Liberty Financial USD, which is now one of the largest stablecoins in the world, according to Bankrate. Top Democrat of the House Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters called out the potential conflict of interest on Thursday and also relayed other concerns around foreign issuers.“… it leaves the door open for foreign firms that present a major national security threat, including targets of sanctions, all to appease those in the Trump family’s inner circle, which has ties to those shady entities,” Waters said in a statement.Earlier this year, Trump signed a resolution to repeal a controversial crypto tax rule finalized toward the end of the Biden administration.The rule set requirements for “custodial brokers” around collecting and reporting user data to the tax agency.

14 Jul, 2025

Bitcoin Becomes World’s Fifth-Largest Asset by Market Cap, Surpassing Amazon

Bitcoin is now the world's fifth-largest asset by market capitalization, as its price soared to unprecedented levels of around $122,000.The world's largest cryptocurrency holds a market capitalization of $2.407 trillion at the time of writing, beating that of Amazon, Silver and Google, according to companiesmarketcap.com. Gold currently owns the largest market capitalization of $22.64 trillion, followed by NVIDIA, Microsoft and Apple.Bitcoin surged past $120,000 for the first time late Sunday night, continuing its ascent to trade at $122,500 by 2 a.m. Monday."This rally isn’t just momentum, it’s infrastructure-driven," said Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research. "The rally is being driven by a powerful convergence: institutional inflows through ETFs, policy momentum in Washington, and macro liquidity that’s finally turning favorable."A continued stream of institutional demand is spotted in U.S. spot bitcoin ETF inflows, where weeks of consecutive positive flows have led over $16 billion to move into the funds, according to SoSoValue data.This is combined with anticipation for legislative advancements in the U.S. from "Crypto Week" — lawmakers will discuss and potentially advance key crypto proposals such as the CLARITY Act or the GENIUS Act this week.Liu said bitcoin would see further upside if these factors hold up, and the market sees clearer signs of an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve."We’re entering a regime where traditional valuation frameworks don’t apply cleanly," Liu said. "If ETF demand sustains and rate cut expectations firm up, BTC could test $130K–$150K before year-end. But velocity will depend on whether retail re-engages alongside institutional flows."Eugene Cheung, chief commercial officer at OSL exchange, also said that he sees potential for bitcoin to reach $130,000 to $150,000 by the end of 2025.Meanwhile, the Kronos analyst said bitcoin's biggest risk now is soft retail conviction in the cryptocurrency, as institutional capital sustains market force."A stall in ETF inflows or renewed policy uncertainty could disrupt what’s currently a well-structured macro uptrend," Liu said.From bitcoin's notable surge today, altcoins have also benefited — Ethereum rose 2.71% in the past 24 hours to break above $3,000, while XRP added 4.82% to $2.91, and Solana gained 3.21% to $165.9. The GMCI 30 Index, which measures the performance of the top 30 cryptocurrencies, is up 3.6% over the last day.