When we last left the bill known as the GENIUS Act, the fix appeared to be in. The crypto industry had spent millions in the 2024 elections to get a friendly regulatory regime, and GENIUS, which would sanction stablecoins and enable Big Tech firms to issue their own private currencies, was the opening salvo in a broad restructuring of the financial system to suit their ends. There was a minor hiccup in the form of Donald Trump’s orgy of crypto corruption, including a new Trump-issued stablecoin, which made it difficult for Democrats to effectively bless crypto’s codification. But they found a work-around, by pretending to fight Trump’s corruption with an amendment blocking presidents from issuing crypto assets that was designed to fail, after which they would happily sign on to the bill.

That’s where we were headed. A motion to advance the GENIUS Act passed, with 16 Democrats joining nearly all Republicans. And final passage, after the amendments were disposed with, was scheduled to happen last week.

It did not. And the reasons for that are fascinating, due more to banking industry upset, and an idiosyncratic crusade by a right-wing Republican that the rest of his caucus doesn’t want to touch, rather than to some change of heart among Democrats. However, the pain imposed on the Democrats’ crypto collaboration has made it harder for the full deregulatory agenda to pass, and just maybe saved the nation from needless financial pain.