GOP hardliners vexed as defense bill advances without CBDC ban
A group of Republicans has called foul after the US House passed a massive defense spending bill on Wednesday that omitted a ban on central bank digital currencies despite promises it would be included.
“Conservatives were promised — explicitly — that strong anti-Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) language would be included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That promise was broken,” GOP Representative Keith Self wrote to X on Wednesday.
The House voted 312-112 to pass the NDAA on Wednesday, sending the $900 billion annual military funding bill to the Senate in a bid to have it passed before the end of the year.
Self had filed an amendment on Tuesday to include a CBDC ban, which had been removed from the bill, but it failed to advance and did not see a vote on the House floor.
Self said a group of Republicans was “assured that anti-CBDC language would be included. Instead, we have been forced into a take-it-or-leave-it bill that breaks that promise. Without that language, I’m inclined to leave it.”
The more than 3,000-page bill is considered must-pass legislation and typically sees non-defense-related amendments that could otherwise be stalled or heavily revised if passed as standalone bills.
In July, House Republican leaders cut a deal with a group of party hardliners to put a CBDC ban in the defense spending bill after the group refused to move forward with three crypto bills unless a CBDC ban was guaranteed.
The bills had been held up in a record-long nine-hour procedural vote and included the stablecoin-regulating GENIUS Act, which President Donald Trump had pressured the GOP to quickly pass.
Related: Does GENIUS turn stablecoin issuers into stealth buyers of US debt?
GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene slammed Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday for not keeping his promise of a CBDC ban, adding she supports crypto but “will never support giving the government the ability to turn off your ability to have full control of your money and to buy and sell.”
An early House version of the bill shared in August had included a CBDC ban, before it was subjected to amendments via multiple markups and committees.
The language of the provision banned the Federal Reserve from testing, studying, developing or issuing any digital currency or asset. It would have also stopped the central bank from offering financial products or services directly to individuals.
In July, the House passed a bill banning CBDCs, the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, with a slim vote of 219-210, which has stalled in the Senate.
Self said he would “fight on in the next must-pass bill to ensure a CBDC never sees the light of day. Financial freedom isn’t negotiable.”
Legal Panel: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight
The US Senate has confirmed crypto-friendly lawyer Mike Selig as the new chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and has elevated Travis Hill to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The two confirmations were included in a package of nearly 100 other nominees that the Trump administration had selected for various roles across the government, which passed the Senate in a 53-43 vote on Thursday.
Selig, who has previous experience at the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission, pledged to make crypto a priority when he was nominated in October after he was picked to take over from the previous nominee, Brian Quintenz.
Meanwhile, Hill has already been running the FDIC as the acting chairman and has also expressed a friendly stance toward crypto.
He has also spoken out at Congressional hearings about the alleged debanking of companies due to crypto ties.
The CFTC could soon receive more specific crypto authority, with measures like the bipartisan Senate bill introduced in November, which hopes to shift primary crypto market oversight to the CFTC.
The FDIC is poised to regulate stablecoin issuers and will have a hand in how the crypto industry is banked.
Selig in charge until 2029, Hill until 2030
Selig’s term will expire in April 2029. Once sworn in, he will take over from CFTC acting chair Caroline Pham, who had planned to leave when a new chair was confirmed and join crypto infrastructure provider MoonPay.
Selig will remain as the sole commissioner of the normally five-member commission, after a series of resignations earlier in the year left Pham as the only commissioner still serving on the CFTC.
Related: Former SEC counsel explains what it takes to make RWAs compliant
Hill will lead the agency for the next five years. Martin Gruenberg, the previous Senate-confirmed FDIC chair, resigned in January as part of the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden.
Industry positive about crypto’s future regulation
The news of crypto-friendly leaders at the helm of two major regulators has been met with positivity in the industry.
Faryar Shirzad, the chief policy officer at crypto exchange Coinbase, said in an X post that Selig’s “experience in crypto and as a federal regulator will ensure that America’s crypto market is governed with fairness, clarity and an abiding commitment to the law.”
Cody Carbone, CEO of crypto industry advocacy group Digital Chamber, said the US Senate’s confirmation of Selig is an exciting new chapter, given “his track record as a member and a lawyer digging into the complex, technical issues around digital assets.”
Magazine: Big questions: Would Bitcoin survive a 10-year power outage?
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has flagged in a lawsuit that third-party Bitcoin mining hosting services can be a securities offering, a position strongly opposed by one industry executive.
The SEC sued the Bitcoin (BTC) mining company VBit and its founder, Danh Vo, in a Delaware federal court on Wednesday, accusing them of fraud and misappropriating around $48 million in investor funds between 2018 and 2022 by selling a greater number of hosting agreements than there were mining rigs.
“VBit’s Hosting Agreements are investment contracts and therefore securities,” the SEC claimed, arguing that VBit’s investment contracts meet the criteria of the securities-defining Howey test.
“Investors who purchased Hosting Agreements did so with the expectation of earning passive income and relied exclusively on VBit’s efforts to earn a profit as the investors did not possess, control, or have agency over the mining rigs they purportedly purchased,” the agency claimed.
The SEC’s claim is a rare hangover from how the agency approached enforcement under the Biden administration, which crypto backers have said lumped most cryptocurrencies and businesses under securities laws.
VBit didn’t follow industry standards, SEC alleges
The SEC claimed that Vo’s Bitcoin mining hosting operation fell far short of standard industry practices, with investors unable to track their rigs, and the company retaining full operational control.
VBit also directed hashrate into a mining pool under its control, which appeared to be a defining factor in the SEC’s classification of VBit’s hosted Bitcoin mining agreement as a security.
In the filing, the SEC said: “The fortunes of each investor were purportedly tied to the fortunes of other investors because every investor’s chance of earning a profit was tied directly to the performance of the greater VBit mining pool, and the more investors recruited into the mining pool, the greater the chances of earning more Bitcoins.”
SEC’s view shouldn’t impact hosted Bitcoin mining industry
Mitchell Askew, the head of Blockware Intelligence, told Cointelegraph that pooling hashrate isn’t industry practice for hosted Bitcoin mining service providers.
Related: Bitcoin miners enter ‘harshest margin environment of all time’
“Hosted Bitcoin mining simply means a client purchases a computer and electricity,” he said. “There’s no pooling of capital, no profit-sharing, and no reliance on a promoter to generate returns. Under the Howey test, that is very clearly not a security.”
“I don’t think this affects the hosted mining industry at all. Legitimate hosted mining has no resemblance to an investment contract, and this theory has no legs to stand on.”
The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The SEC’s view that hosted Bitcoin mining can constitute a security is one of the most notable classifications under the Trump administration, which has positioned the SEC to be more supportive of the industry.
Several high-profile crypto investigations that the agency started under the Biden administration have since been dropped, however, many fraud-related lawsuits are ongoing.
Magazine: Big questions: Would Bitcoin survive a 10-year power outage?
United States President Donald Trump offered positive remarks about pro-crypto Fed chair nominee Chris Waller at a recent press conference, as speculation continues over his final choice.
“I think he’s great. I mean, he’s been a man who’s been there a long time. Somebody that I was very involved with and sense of his career, and he’s a fantastic man,” Trump said during a press conference on Thursday.
Waller has recently been perceived as relatively supportive of crypto, saying in an August speech at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025 that there is “nothing to be afraid of” about crypto payments operating outside the traditional banking system.
Trump says everyone on the shortlist “would be a good choice”
Waller currently has a 14% chance of being selected, according to crypto prediction platform Polymarket, making him the third most likely pick. Crypto-friendly White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett leads at 53%, followed by former Fed governor Kevin Warsh with 28% odds.
Trump said that the list has been narrowed to three or four candidates. “I think every one of them would be a good choice, honestly,” he said.
When asked whether Fed governor Michelle Bowman was also on the shortlist, Trump did not directly answer the question, but described her as a “fantastic person.” Polymarket currently puts Bowman’s odds at 2%.
Trump said that he expects to make the announcement over the “next couple of weeks.” “I don’t know before the end of the year, but pretty soon,” Trump said.
Crypto industry has been keeping a close eye on Fed chair developments
The crypto industry has been paying close attention to developments surrounding Trump’s Fed chair nominee, with the discussion ramping up in recent months as the Fed’s role in monetary policy is often seen as affecting broader crypto market conditions.
Related: Global debt markets show dollar dominance moves in cycles, US Fed says
Interest rates, which are set by the Federal Reserve, are widely viewed as having a significant impact on the crypto market.
When rates are lowered, investors tend to seek higher-risk assets such as cryptocurrencies, as traditional investments like bonds and term deposits become less attractive.
Magazine: Big questions: Would Bitcoin survive a 10-year power outage?
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