Will New US Blockchain Legislation Shape Global Infrastructure?

Forbes

02-07-2025

With the new series of blockchain legislation, will the United States unleash a wave of innovation like the one the 1996 Telecommunications Act fostered for the internet?
On June 17th, 2025, the U.S. Senate made history by passing the GENIUS Act of 2025 (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025). This legislation establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins and represents the first major cryptocurrency bill ever approved by the Senate in the United States and a major policy shift versus crypto industry.
The bill's passage was not without controversy. Democrats strongly opposed the measure, arguing it lacked sufficient regulations to prevent abuses. They particularly criticized the absence of anti-corruption rules that would prevent President Trump and his family from profiting from cryptocurrency investments. While the House still must approve the bill before it reaches the president's desk, this Senate victory marks a turning point for the crypto industry's quest for Washington (and thus global) legitimacy.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - APRIL 20, 2018: The United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Robert ...)
A Moment of Digital Transformation
This legislative milestone comes at what may prove to be a key moment in digital governance. Think back to the internet of the mid-1990s—it looked nothing like today's digital landscape. Back then, digital identity meant little more than an email address. Data ownership was an abstract concept most people did not understand. The idea that individuals could truly control their personal information online seemed impossible.
Distributed technology existed mainly in academic papers, with few grasping how profoundly it could transform digital ownership, identity, and governance. Today, even as Big Tech continues to dominate, we may be witnessing a breaking point—the beginning of new rules for how our digital world operates.
Political Battles and Missed Opportunities
The blockchain legislation advanced amid intense political drama. The same week, Republicans narrowly passed President Trump's budget reconciliation bill in another contentious 50-50 Senate vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the deciding ballot. The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" faced criticism from both parties over healthcare cuts, AI regulation concerns, and tax redistribution.
During the budget debate, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis attempted to include provisions addressing what she called "unfair tax treatment" of cryptocurrency miners and stakers. Her amendments never made it to the Senate floor. "I would have liked to have seen that provision in the final product," Alaska Representative Nicholas Begich said afterward. "I think there will be other opportunities for us to get that into must-pass legislation."
The political tensions were evident in other ways too. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley proposed an amendment—ultimately defeated—that would have banned government officials, including the president and Congress members, from owning or promoting digital assets.
Building America's Blockchain Infrastructure
The GENIUS Act represents just one piece of a larger legislative puzzle. Congress is simultaneously considering the Deploying American Blockchains Act of 2025, which awaits Senate approval. Together with proposals for a national Bitcoin reserve and comprehensive digital asset market structure, these bills form the most ambitious crypto regulatory framework in U.S. history.
Echoes of 1996
The parallels to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 are remarkable. Just as that landmark legislation opened markets to competition and gave companies the regulatory clarity needed to build broadband infrastructure nationwide, today's blockchain bills promise to provide the certainty this emerging sector has desperately sought.
For years, crypto industry advocates have argued that regulations have stifled innovation. The current legislative package could create the necessary regulatory infrastructure and unleash investment and development similar to the $1.4 trillion in capital that built the internet's physical backbone after 1996.
But blockchain legislation goes beyond what lawmakers accomplished in the 1990s. While the Telecommunications Act focused primarily on infrastructure, today's bills address two revolutionary concepts that could reshape the entire digital economy.
The first transformation involves infrastructure sovereignty. Blockchain technology creates what experts call "digital ownership infrastructure"—a network of secure, decentralized systems where individuals can store and control their digital assets and identities. Unlike today's centralized platforms, blockchain gives users sovereign control over their data through cryptographic keys that only they possess.
The legislation (Deploying American Blockchains Act) directs the Department of Commerce to establish a Blockchain Deployment Program to support U.S. leadership in blockchain technology, develop policies and recommendations, examine benefits to federal agencies, coordinate federal cybersecurity activities related to blockchain technology, and work with the private sector to identify deployment opportunities.
Perhaps more importantly, blockchain legislation tackles a challenge that did not exist in 1996: who owns and controls the vast amounts of personal data generated by digital interactions.
Today, most people have fragmented online identities with no real control over their personal information. Companies collect and monetize user data while individuals unknowingly surrender the value their information creates. When data breaches occur—and they happen frequently—users face a lifetime of fraud mitigation with little recourse.
Blockchain offers a fundamentally different model through "self-sovereign identity." Instead of storing personal data on company servers, individuals can maintain their identity information in their own digital wallets, choosing what to share and with whom. This represents a shift as significant as the move from centralized mainframes to personal computers.
The implications extend far beyond individual privacy. Self-sovereign identity systems could enable new forms of economic activity where people directly monetize their data contributions rather than surrendering value to platform intermediaries.
The Window of Opportunity
Countries across the world face a narrow window of opportunity to challenge American technological dominance. This U.S. legislative package—though ironically American companies often criticize EU tech regulations —could cement an even greater competitive advantage for U.S. entities for decades to come. The current landscape speaks for itself: virtually no Big Tech company of global scale exist outside the United States. History shows that first-mover advantages in setting technological standards often prove decisive, and other nations may be running out of time to establish meaningful alternatives.
The Deploying American Blockchains Act and GENIUS Act may not carry the immediate transformative impact of the Telecommunications Act, but they address challenges that could prove even more significant: how individuals control their digital lives and how societies govern increasingly complex technological systems.
History suggests that countries establishing clear, innovation-friendly regulatory frameworks for emerging technologies tend to dominate those technologies for decades. With adequate blockchain legislation, any country has the opportunity to shape not just markets, but the fundamental architecture of digital freedom itself.