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Trump’s threat to block Congress over voter-ID law leaves crypto bill on shakier ground

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Trump's threat to block Congress over voter-ID law leaves crypto bill on shakier ground

If the crypto industry manages its top priority to get its market structure legislation through the U.S. Senate and to the desk of President Donald Trump, he might not sign it if he holds true to threats he’s been making to withhold his signature from any other legislation before the elections bill.

Trump, in the midst of managing a U.S. war with Iran, has spent significant attention on the SAVE America Act, which he’s declared his top priority in Congress. The proposed legislation would be designed to impose new hurdles for U.S. voting, including identification requirements, proof-of-citizenship demands and strict limits on mail-in ballots that would be expected to thin the voter rolls.

“It’ll guarantee the midterms,” Trump said in Monday remarks at a conference of congressional Republicans in Florida. “I’m willing to just sort of say I’m not going to sign anything until this is approved.”

He acknowledged that the effort — a new version of the previous Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act that already passed the House of Representatives — will have a difficult time in the Senate, where he suggested there are four or five Republican lawmakers who aren’t on board. In addition to the voter requirements, the bill would additionally focus on banning transgender athletes in women’s sports and gender-affirming surgery for children.

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Democrats criticize the voter-ID effort as voter suppression written to fix an election-fraud problem for which there’s no evidence, despite the presidents’ claims that he’s been cheated in elections.

Trump argued the act would secure Republican power in the U.S. for half a century.

“You’re going to win the midterms at levels you wouldn’t even believe,” Trump told the Republican audience. The GOP is widely expected to lose ground in November’s congressional midterms, including a potential loss of the House majority, which current betting on prediction market Polymarket puts at an 85% likelihood. “You’re going to win every election for a long time until somebody really screws things up, and hopefully that won’t happen.”

But the president has also been a major driver of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that’s been the top policy goal for the crypto industry. His new stance that he won’t approve other bills before his voter-ID effort throws a shadow on the digital assets push, which is working toward a long-awaited approval from the Senate Banking Committee.

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The negotiation over the market structure bill has been difficult, but crypto insiders have maintained hope that the talks could find sufficient common ground as soon as this week to get a hearing scheduled to move it through committee. The legislation has already advanced through the Senate Agriculture Committee, so if it makes it through the banking panel, a final version would need to be meshed together for a vote of the overall Senate. Assuming the House would sign off, because it had already approved a similar bill last year, the legislation would then reach Trump’s desk.

Now the crypto sector has to wonder how serious the president was about refusing to sign anything, even a digital asset bill he has demanded be quickly sent to his desk. Establishing a pro-crypto regulatory system in the U.S. has been among the top issues for the Trump White House, so a Clarity Act passage will test whether Trump can force action on SAVE while still getting his crypto project accomplished.

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Crypto World

Amina Becomes First Regulated Bank on EU’s Blockchain Securities Platform

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Amina Becomes First Regulated Bank on EU's Blockchain Securities Platform

Amina, a Swiss-regulated crypto bank, has joined a blockchain-based settlement platform for tokenized securities operating under the European Union’s DLT pilot regime, marking another step toward integrating digital asset infrastructure with traditional capital markets.

The Zug, Switzerland-based company announced Monday that it has become a listing sponsor on the EU-regulated platform 21X, making Amina the venue’s first fully regulated bank participant.

Amina said the move will allow it to support companies issuing tokenized securities on 21X through its partnership with Tokeny, a Luxembourg-based company that provides technology for creating and managing tokenized financial assets.

The collaboration aims to address a key barrier to institutional adoption of tokenized assets by connecting regulated banks with the issuance and trading of tokenized securities.

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21X received an infrastructure permit under the EU’s DLT pilot regime in December 2024, allowing it to run a regulated market for blockchain-based securities in a regulatory test environment.

“A lack of interoperability of tokenized asset platforms” was cited by Baker McKenzie’s European Financial Services practice in June as one of the main obstacles to the adoption of tokenization among financial institutions. “Scale will only be achieved when numerous market players are transacting with each other on common or interconnected platforms,” Zurich partner Yves Mauchle wrote on the firm’s blog.

Introduced in 2023, the DLT framework allows market operators to experiment with blockchain-based trading and settlement of financial instruments within a regulatory sandbox. The program is intended to help regulators evaluate how the technology could fit into existing market infrastructure.

Despite early uptake, the regime has faced scrutiny from industry participants, who warn that its current limits could prevent European onchain markets from scaling and competing with other jurisdictions. It remains unclear whether participation from regulated banks such as Amina will help accelerate adoption.

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Related: Crypto exchanges gain as tokenized commodity market climbs to $7.7B

Strong growth of tokenized real-world assets

The development comes as financial institutions increasingly invest in blockchain infrastructure for tokenized assets. In the United States, institutions including BNY, Nasdaq and S&P Global recently backed the expansion of the Canton Network, while Europe is testing regulated blockchain trading venues such as 21X under the EU’s DLT pilot regime.

In February, eight EU-regulated digital asset companies urged policymakers to accelerate digital asset legislation, warning that the bloc risks falling behind the United States and other jurisdictions in developing tokenized financial markets.

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The total value of tokenized real-world assets has reached $26.5 billion. Source: RWA.xyz

To be sure, positive developments are taking place. In September, crypto exchange Kraken launched tokenized securities trading for European users through its xStocks platform, which offers blockchain-based versions of US-listed equities. 

Two months later, tokenization platform Ondo received regulatory approval in Liechtenstein to offer tokenized equities trading to European investors.

Related: Crypto Biz: Kraken plugs into the Fed