The House just blew another chance to move forward on crypto legislation. After a messy week of internal Republican fighting, zero votes happened on Wednesday on the three crypto bills that were supposed to be the main event of “crypto week.”
Despite Trump promising on Tuesday that the votes would go through “very early” today, it’s now obvious that nothing is going according to his script.
Things first fell apart Tuesday when conservative Republicans blocked their own party’s attempt to bring the bills to the floor. GOP leaders thought they had patched things up after Trump met privately with the holdouts that night.
A new deal was struck the next morning, and for a moment, it looked like the chamber might finally make progress. But that temporary peace came with strings attached. Strings that are now strangling the entire effort.
Bill merge deal triggers backlash from key lawmakers
The compromise was simple in theory. Merge the CLARITY Act, which focuses on market structure, with a completely separate bill that would ban the launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The idea was to appease the conservative wing by folding their demands into something bigger. But that’s exactly what triggered the next fight.
Members of both the Financial Services and Agriculture Committees, who actually wrote the crypto bills, immediately pushed back. They warned that tying the CBDC ban to the CLARITY Act would sabotage both pieces of legislation. Two sources familiar with the private talks said the standoff hasn’t been resolved.
The hard-liners are demanding guarantees that the CBDC ban will pass. Meanwhile, committee lawmakers are floating another option: attaching the provision to some other must-pass item like the defense bill or surveillance powers renewal.
While that argument played out behind closed doors, the vote on the procedural rule to start debate stayed open. More than a dozen Republicans hadn’t voted yet, including major players like Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) and Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.). Both were seen in closed-door talks with Speaker Mike Johnson as the clock kept ticking.
By the time Majority Leader Steve Scalise stepped in, it was clear the plan had shifted again. He confirmed that party leaders now intend to combine the bills after votes are cast, not before. A Rules Committee hearing was scheduled for 4 p.m. to officially begin that process, but it still depends on getting past the procedural hurdles the House can’t seem to stop tripping over.
All this chaos makes Trump’s confident promise look increasingly detached from reality. On Tuesday, he told reporters the votes would happen “very early” the next day. That didn’t happen. And the longer this mess drags on, the more it proves just how little control anyone actually has over this so-called “crypto week.”
Rep. Max Miller pushes new crypto tax framework
While House leadership struggled to sort out the floor drama, Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) tried to shift the spotlight to a different kind of crypto policy. On Wednesday morning, he rolled out early details of a new legislative proposal that aims to give digital assets a proper place in the U.S. tax code.
Speaking at a hearing on the issue, he made clear the tax system needs a full overhaul to handle crypto transactions. “We need a tax code that keeps up with innovation and not one that chases it overseas,” Miller said. He called for reforms that would help consumers and investors navigate the space without fear of confusing or outdated tax rules.
His bill would introduce a de minimis exemption, allowing users to make small crypto transactions without triggering taxes. It would also bring clarity to crypto mining, which is how users earn rewards by solving complex math problems to verify transactions on the blockchain. Right now, those rewards create all kinds of tax headaches.
The legislation would also define how staking is taxed. That’s when users lock up their crypto to support the network and earn passive rewards. On top of that, the bill could revise wash sale rules so crypto holders can’t dodge taxes by quickly selling and rebuying assets to claim fake losses.
Miller said he also wants to fix how digital assets are treated inside retirement plans, loans, and donations. He argued these fixes are necessary to bring crypto fully into the financial system without penalizing regular users for simply participating.
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