‘Crypto Week’ Gathers Momentum
The U.S. Congress is gearing up for an expanded “Crypto Week,” with additional events being added to the legislative schedule. This intensified focus reflects a growing recognition of digital assets’ importance in the nation’s financial landscape.
Concurrently, President Trump’s family continues to broaden its involvement in the crypto space, introducing new money-making opportunities within their digital ventures. This dual development signals a critical period for cryptocurrency, as both regulatory frameworks and entrepreneurial endeavors evolve rapidly.
New Tax Policy Framework
On July 16, the House of Representatives Committee on Ways & Means’ Oversight subcommittee will hold a hearing titled “Making America the Crypto Capital of the World: Ensuring Digital Asset Policy Built for the 21st Century.” According to Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO), this hearing will specifically focus on “the affirmative steps needed to place a tax policy framework on digital assets.”
This event is a key part of the broader “Crypto Week,” which will also see floor votes on market structure legislation (the House’s CLARITY Act), stablecoins (the Senate’s GENIUS Act), and Tom Emmer’s revived anti-central bank digital currency (CBDC) legislation.
Lummis’s Tax Plan Potential
While the House has yet to put forward its own tax-specific crypto proposals, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) recently introduced a bill addressing multiple angles of crypto taxation. Given that the House appears ready to vote on the Senate’s GENIUS Act for stablecoins as is, there’s a possibility they could adopt Lummis’s tax plan, provided she can successfully navigate it through her own chamber first. This potential cross-chamber adoption could streamline the legislative process for comprehensive crypto tax reform.
Senate: Market Structure Discussions Loom
The Senate is now rumored to be preparing a market structure discussion draft for release sometime next week, indicating their increasing engagement with digital asset regulation. The chamber could also potentially take up the CLARITY Act with minimal revisions, especially since the Senate has not yet introduced its own comprehensive market structure bill, having only presented a set of “principles” previously.
This possibility gained traction from Committee member John Kennedy (R-LA), who stated that “in terms of the Senate starting from scratch drafting a market structure bill, it makes no sense to me,” suggesting a preference for leveraging existing House efforts.
Plea for Crypto Oversight Role
Amidst this flurry of regulatory activity, state securities regulators are advocating strongly against being excluded from playing a significant role in crypto oversight. On July 7, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) sent a letter to Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), urging them to “preserve the critical role that state securities regulators play in our capital markets as fighters of fraud, market manipulation, and similar abuses” as the Senate considers market structure legislation.
NASAA warns that failing to do so “would have net-negative, significant consequences for Americans,” highlighting concerns that federal partners might not adequately compensate for the absence of state-level oversight, especially given the current limited capacity of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Trump Media: New Non-Woke Token Plans
Despite persistent, though unsuccessful, attempts by Democrats to restrict the Trump family’s crypto ventures, the Trump crypto empire continues to expand. On July 9, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) announced the public BETA testing of its new “Truth+ subscription TV streaming plan, the Patriot Package.” This offering, which includes “premium, non-woke news channels,” will allow subscribers to accumulate activity-linked “gems” on their Truth Social accounts.
These gems will eventually be tied to a new utility token on both Truth Social and Truth+, following TMTG’s earlier exploration of introducing such a token and inspired by the success of President Trump’s $TRUMP memecoin and World Liberty Financial’s WLFI governance token.
Trump Ventures: Scrutiny and Expansion
While TMTG has applied for three different crypto-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and raised $2.4 billion to establish its BTC-based ‘treasury,’ its flagship Truth Social platform continues to face challenges, with a reported net loss of $31 million in Q1 2025 and shares down nearly 45% for the year. Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial (WLF) recently announced a $100 million sale of its WLFI tokens to the Aqua1 Foundation, a ‘Web3-native fund’ based in the UAE.
However, crypto critic Jacob Silverman has raised concerns about Aqua1’s legitimacy, claiming a lack of official registration or public documentation in the UAE. This scrutiny highlights the ongoing challenges of transparency and verification in the rapidly evolving crypto landscape, even as the Trump family’s digital asset ventures continue to expand and seek broader market integration.
