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Perspective by: Zachary Kelman
No, the GENIUS Act doesn’t eliminate all governmental oversight over currency. It doesn’t render Bitcoin tax-exempt. It doesn’t “authorize” decentralized finance (DeFi). And no — it’s not a secretive strategy for a Mark-of-the-Beast-type CBDC, especially with the anti-CBDC clauses enacted alongside it.
What the GENIUS Act accomplishes — and what we should celebrate — is dismantling the grip that a select few dominant banks and regulators have held over worldwide dollar clearing for years. It terminates their monopoly on who can access legitimate dollars — and complicates their silent mandate to oversee how that money is utilized, and whether it conforms with political priorities in Washington or on Wall Street, making it considerably more challenging — perhaps even unattainable.
The GENIUS Act represents the first significant fracture in a system that has been drifting toward financial authoritarianism for years. Surfing the momentum of stablecoin-driven dollarization, it redirects the US financial system away from a surveillance-focused regime. It guides it — imperfectly, but substantially — toward expanded monetary freedom and international access to the still-stable reserve currency.
Even though the torch-and-pitchfork faction will accept nothing short of a crypto miracle, grasping this pivotal legislation necessitates examining crypto and banking history rather than the latest social media outcry.
The crypto aspiration
When I transitioned from traditional finance to crypto more than a decade ago, I envisioned a “Crypto Aspiration” and a “Crypto Dilemma.” The aspiration was that Bitcoin, specifically, and crypto, in general, would evolve into a superior form of currency for individuals, particularly those who were underserved — a sort of public utility that fostered growth and enhanced lives.
For this to materialize, Bitcoin needed to stay decentralized and unblemished. This required regulators to keep their unwanted influence away — and banks and institutionalists must be prevented from co-opting it to maintain the status quo.
The crypto dilemma
The counterpart, the crypto dilemma, was that Bitcoin and public blockchains would be repurposed to thwart money laundering — in doing so, defeating financial liberty. It’s the vision that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink — previously a Bitcoin skeptic, now the face of iBIT — articulated in 2017: “A genuine global digital currency” where “everything would be understood, everything would flow through,” rendering money laundering impossible by design.
Associated: The GENIUS Act has passed and DePIN should follow
This might appear overly cautious to some, but it’s not hypothetical. US financial regulations have transformed — from the Bank Secrecy Act of 1973 to the USA PATRIOT Act — into an extensive surveillance system that authorized banks to monitor, document, and regulate their clients’ activities.
It reached a critical point during the Obama administration when the DOJ initiated Operation Chokepoint, pressuring banks to cut ties with legally operating yet politically disfavored enterprises — from payday lenders and pawn shops to adult websites and coin dealers.
Crypto advocacy
Since Pirate Wires has thoroughly chronicled the targeting of crypto under Chokepoint 2.0 — or, as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated, when “Warren and Gensler sought to unlawfully extinguish our entire industry” — there’s no need to revisit how crypto became a focal point in this subsequent chapter.
Luckily, that chapter was shorter than anticipated. Crypto advocacy intensified. Judges ruled against then-SEC Chair Gary Gensler, resulting in the approval of a Bitcoin ETF. Most significantly, USD-denominated stablecoins surged just as the dollar’s global reserve status encountered its gravest challenges in modern times — and for the first time, the American financial imperial initiative hesitated. Warren, Gensler, and the institutionalists faltered. Cooler heads prevailed.
China and the BRICS coalition advocated for de-dollarization. Nevertheless, stablecoins undermined their strategy — compelling China and Russia to retreat from crypto and concentrate on generating state-supported alternatives to contend with USDT and USDC. Treasury yields surged from COVID-era expenditures and ballooning debt, yet crypto persisted in expanding, dispersing dollars through stablecoins on a global scale.
Then came the pivotal shift: the US-led sanctions response to Russia’s 2022 incursion into Ukraine. It was a moment reminiscent of “The Emperor Has No Clothes” for US financial dominance — revealing the limitations of dollar weaponization and weakening the rationale for monopolizing dollar clearing by a select few US banks and their regulators.
Transitioning against financial imperialism
Instead, the GENIUS Act delivered a significant blow against American financial imperialism — redistributing power from correspondent banks to stablecoins as instruments to bridge the interest rate gap and slow de-dollarization. When Senator Elizabeth Warren, for instance, advocated for an amendment mandating all stablecoin issuers to monitor onchain transactions — a more extreme version of what the PATRIOT Act already demands from the correspondent banking cartel — fellow Democratic Senator Kirstin Gillibrand, visibly frustrated, cautioned that it would annihilate the industry before it even began. She clarified that her priority wasn’t surveillance — it was fortifying the dollar.
This may not represent a moral awakening in favor of financial autonomy but rather an acknowledgment of imperial limitations and an implicit recognition that sanctions and chokepoints no longer wield the power they once did. It certainly wasn’t the realization of the crypto aspiration, though it might signify the cessation of the crypto dilemma — unless the political climate shifts dramatically, and Fink — who now possesses the “keys” — also alters his direction.
For the time being, what we have is enhanced access to dollars — and increased access to crypto.
At least, until the next election.
Perspective by: Zachary Kelman.
This article serves informational purposes only and is not intended to be construed as legal or investment advice. The views, opinions, and thoughts expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
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