It's Crypto Week. Congress Can Future-Proof the U.S. Financial System: Summer Mersinger
- July 14, 2025
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When Congress established the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934, it was responding to myriad failures of an antiquated financial system. The regulatory architecture that emerged provided the foundation for nearly a century of American financial dominance. Today, Congress faces a comparable moment: the opportunity to modernize America's financial infrastructure for the digital age.
Two pieces of legislation now before lawmakers, the GENIUS Act on stablecoins and comprehensive market structure reform, represent more than incremental policy adjustments. Together, they constitute America's response to a fundamental shift in how money moves around the world.
The stakes are considerable. The $240 billion stablecoin market, projected to reach $3.7 trillion by 2030 , has emerged as critical financial infrastructure largely outside formal regulatory frameworks. Nearly all major stablecoins peg voluntarily to the dollar, creating a curious phenomenon: private companies building elaborate technology to make American currency work better globally than existing payment systems.
This development comes as America's monetary hegemony faces its most serious challenge in generations. China's digital yuan initiatives, BRICS alternative payment systems, and growing reluctance among trading partners to transact in dollars signal a coordinated effort to circumvent American financial influence.
Stablecoins offer America's most effective response . They expand dollar accessibility globally while preserving the transparency and rule-of-law advantages that make the American financial system attractive. The GENIUS Act would formalize this system, establishing reserve requirements, audit standards and consumer protections that make dollar-backed digital assets both safer and more attractive than alternatives.
Yet currency infrastructure alone cannot suffice. The current approach of applying 20th-century regulations to 21st-century technology has produced predictable results: innovation migrating to jurisdictions with clearer and more welcoming rules.
The November federal court ruling that vacated the SEC's expanded dealer definition illustrates the problem. Regulators had stretched statutory language so far beyond original intent that judicial intervention became inevitable.
Digital asset platforms integrate functions that traditional finance deliberately separates, creating new efficiencies alongside new risks. Forcing these platforms into regulatory categories designed for different business models produces neither clarity nor protection. Comprehensive market structure legislation would establish bespoke registration frameworks that actually correspond to how these businesses operate, something the crypto ecosystem has been advocating for years.