Crypto Assets Week: A Key Turning Point in US Crypto Assets Regulation

Author: Tsinghua Financial Review

On July 17, 2025, Eastern Time, the U.S. House of Representatives passed three key cryptocurrency bills that received public support from President Trump after two rounds of deliberation. This legislative package constitutes the cornerstone of the United States' digital asset regulatory framework. The passage of these three bills is expected to trigger significant capital formation effects and drive innovation in core blockchain technologies, thereby systematically reshaping the global competitive landscape of digital assets.

The third week of July 2025 was defined by the U.S. legislative body as "Cryptocurrency Week", with three core digital asset bills submitted for consideration in the federal House of Representatives.

Among them, the "GENIUS Act" was passed by an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives and signed into law by the President as the first federal regulatory framework for stablecoins, establishing a foundational standard for the issuance, custody, and operation of stablecoins, thereby accelerating their large-scale application in payment and clearing scenarios. The concurrently promoted "CLARITY Act" and the "Anti-CBDC Surveillance National Act" experienced legislative hurdles but ultimately received approval from the House of Representatives and were transferred to the Senate for review.

These three bills together form the matrix of the United States digital asset regulatory system, aiming to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency industry and strengthen the dollar's influence in the global monetary digitalization process.

The regulatory matrix presents a clear division of responsibilities: the "GENIUS Act" focuses on the regulation of stablecoin entities and does not cover the specifications of the underlying blockchain networks; the "CLARITY Act" innovatively proposes an auditing framework for the technical protocols of blockchain networks, providing a compliance path for stablecoin infrastructure. The "Anti-CBDC Monitoring National Act" explicitly prohibits the issuance of central bank stablecoins, institutionally ensuring the innovation and competitive vitality of stablecoins. Together, they form a complementary regulatory framework of "management layer - application layer - protocol layer," marking a systematic establishment of a new regulatory foundation for digital finance in the United States.

The CLARITY Act: A Dynamic Regulatory Framework for Digital Assets

The core of the "CLARITY Act" is to establish a regulatory framework for the attribution of digital assets, clarifying the jurisdictional boundaries between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) based on the nature of the assets: categorizing digital assets into "digital asset securities" (SEC regulated) and "digital commodities" (CFTC regulated), the latter specifically referring to crypto assets that have an intrinsic relationship with value and blockchain technology.

The bill innovatively introduces a "Decentralized Maturity Assessment System," which dynamically adjusts regulatory intensity based on the degree of decentralization of the governance structure—centralized entities are subject to strict securities-level regulation, while certified "mature systems" (meeting the three criteria of no single controlling entity, open-source code repository, and automated protocol execution) can transition to a commodity regulatory framework, achieving a regulatory arbitrage path from securities law to commodity trading law. This move not only fills the institutional vacuum in the regulation of blockchain technology in the United States but also establishes a compliance foundation for the underlying networks of stablecoins, with the potential to end the legal protective boundaries for on-chain financial activities.

"Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act": Absolute Support for the Principle of "Decentralization"

The "Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act" fundamentally anchors the strategic direction of the United States in the field of cryptocurrency regulation: with the core principles of ensuring the innovation space of the private sector and market autonomy mechanisms. The bill explicitly prohibits the Federal Reserve from directly issuing or managing retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), requiring any government token project to be specially authorized by Congress, effectively depriving the Federal Reserve of the ability to implement penetrating monetary policy through CBDC.

The uniqueness of CBDC as a sovereign digital currency is manifested in its threefold legal attributes: the federal government's monopoly on issuance rights, the ability to monitor the flow of funds throughout the entire chain, and the functionality of programmable transaction restrictions. These characteristics have led to concerns from various sectors regarding its potential as a "financial surveillance tool." The "Anti-CBDC Act" fundamentally restricts the risks of monitoring penetration of programmable currency through the congressional authorization mechanism and issuance ban, with its core legal value being the establishment of a statutory protective boundary for citizens' financial privacy.

The achievements of Cryptocurrency Week have pushed the cryptocurrency regulatory framework into a substantial implementation phase by 2025, accelerating the institutional integration of digital assets into mainstream financial infrastructure through the establishment of predictable compliance pathways.