+ U.S. House set to pass major crypto bills.

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The Daily Docket

The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

 

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. The U.S. House is set to pass two major crypto bills that could take the industry closer to mainstream. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for President Trump to gut the Education Department, and three banks reached a settlement tied to Archegos’ collapse. Today’s fun fact: Human hair is helping save water in drought-hit Chile. Let’s dive in.

 

Crypto bills set to advance this week take industry closer to mainstream

 

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

This week the House of Representatives is set to pass a series of crypto-related bills, paving the way to fiurther integrate digital assets into traditional finance. Here’s what to know:

  • The most notable is a bill called the GENIUS Act, which would establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins and is likely to advance to President Trump's desk.
  • Stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value, usually a 1:1 dollar peg, are commonly used by crypto traders to move funds between tokens. Their use has grown rapidly in recent years, and proponents say they could be used to send payments instantly.
  • The GENIUS Act received bipartisan support in the Senate, with several Democrats joining most Republicans to back the proposed federal rules. It would require tokens to be backed by liquid assets, such as U.S. dollars and short-term Treasury bills, and for issuers to disclose publicly the composition of their reserves on a monthly basis.
  • Crypto proponents say those rules could legitimize stablecoins, making banks, retailers and consumers more comfortable with using them to transfer funds. Read more about corporate interest in stablecoins here.
  • The other bill, the CLARITY Act, would define when a crypto token is a commodity.
  • Both bills are a huge win for the crypto industry, which has been pushing for federal legislation for years and poured money into last year's elections in order to promote pro-crypto candidates.
  • Many Democrats fiercely oppose both the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act, arguing that they have too few consumer protections and would be a giveaway to Trump's own personal crypto ventures by enabling softer-touch regulation.
  • Read more about what has been dubbed “crypto week” here.
 

Coming up today

  • Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the sons of convicted Mexican kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, is due to appear in court in Chicago, nearly two months after federal prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty against him if he were convicted on drug trafficking charges. 

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

 

More top news

  • Republican-led U.S. Senate confirms Trump's first second-term judicial nominee
  • 4th Circuit temporarily upholds protected status for Afghans
  • U.S. launches new bid to keep migrants detained by denying hearings, memo shows
  • New York official again rebuffs Texas judgment against doctor over abortion pills
 
 

Industry insight

  • A federal judge in Chicago sentenced Christopher Kamon, the former chief financial officer of Tom Girardi's law firm, to 65 months in prison for his role in the misappropriation of millions of dollars in client funds owed to families of the victims of a 2018 plane crash in Indonesia. Kamon is already serving a 121-month sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud in a California federal court on related charges.
  • Moves: Tara McGrath, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, moved to Perkins Coie’s white-collar and investigations practice … Former SEC enforcement counsel Jason Spitalnick joined Snell & Wilmer’s litigation, investigations and trial practice … Foley added Matt Caplan as a partner in its commercial litigation practice from Cooley. 
 

$120 million

That’s how much Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo will pay to settle a lawsuit claiming they hid conflicts of interest while sales of ViacomCBS shares helped fuel the collapse of Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management. Archegos, a family office that once managed $36 billion, imploded in March 2021 when Hwang could not meet margin calls on bank loans he obtained to make large bets in ViacomCBS and other media and technology stocks. Read more.

 

In the courts

  • The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume dismantling the Department of Education, part of his bid to shrink the federal government's role in education in favor of more control by the states. Read more here.
  • A coalition of mostly Democratic-led states sued the Trump administration challenging its move to withhold about $6.8 billion in congressionally approved funding for K-12 schools. Read the complaint. 
  • U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan temporarily halted enforcement of her order requiring Argentina to turn over its 51% stake in oil and gas company YPF to partially satisfy a $16.1 billion court judgment. Read more.