Bitcoin, others see gains on Genius Act hopes

Crypto prices jumped Wednesday after President Donald Trump said a vote to approve two long-stalled bills would happen later today.

The announcement came less than 24 hours after Republicans in the House blocked progress on both the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act, which together would reshape crypto regulation across the United States.

Bitcoin, others see gains on Genius Act hopes

According to CNBC, several GOP lawmakers reversed their opposition following a late-night White House meeting, clearing the way for what Trump now says will be final votes.

Bitcoin climbed 2% to $119,114.79, recovering most of its Tuesday losses. Ether rose 3% to $3,156. The broader market rallied too. Circle rose 5%, and Coinbase added 2% after both closed lower the previous day. Smaller names saw bigger gains. BitMine and SharpLink, two stocks tied to ether treasuries, each gained around 14%. Bit Digital went up 13%. All of them had dipped earlier when the House failed to advance the bills.

The GENIUS Act has already passed the Senate. It focuses on stablecoins and would prohibit issuers from paying interest to users. If passed, it would give even more weight to the Ethereum network, which underpins many stablecoin applications used by large institutions.

The second bill, the CLARITY Act, deals with broader market structure rules. Unlike the GENIUS Act, it hasn’t yet made it to a vote. Players like Coinbase were pushing for both bills to pass together, but it’s still unclear if that will happen.

Owen Lau, an analyst at Oppenheimer, said the market overreacted to Tuesday’s delay. “It’s not such bad news, which is why the stocks [Coinbase and Circle] recovered in late trading,” Owen told CNBC. He added that while prices may stay bumpy until the vote happens, the bills are still expected to pass eventually. “Both stocks may be under pressure until we get the vote, but these bills will eventually get passed after these negotiations.”

According to Owen, whether the bills are passed as a pair or separately won’t affect the long-term value much. However, bundling them would give markets quicker clarity by cutting out months of political stalling.

Institutions keep pouring in

Ether’s rally, though impressive, isn’t backed by much on-chain growth. Markus Thielen, head of research at 10x Research, said the recent surge was driven by hype and positioning. “Active addresses remain flat, network revenue is unchanged, and gas [transaction] fees have only ticked up slightly,” Markus said. Despite those weak fundamentals, ether has doubled in price in just three months, riding on growing stablecoin interest and the buzz around ether treasuries.

Bitcoin’s rise hasn’t been smooth either. The coin fell earlier in the week after over $360 million worth of leveraged long positions were liquidated on Monday. That liquidation dragged the price down briefly after Bitcoin hit an all-time high above $120,000. But after Trump’s post, the coin rebounded again.

Money keeps flowing in from institutions. On Tuesday, Bitcoin ETFs took in $402.99 million, while ether funds pulled in $192.3 million, showing that big investors are still loading up even as Washington keeps dragging its feet.