#CryptoNewss Snapshot: What’s Really Moving Crypto Today — 17 May 2025

1. Capitol Hill’s “GENIUS” moment

The GENIUS Act, America’s first federal stable-coin statute, is now on the Senate floor with bipartisan whip counts showing enough votes to pass as early as next week. The bill locks issuers into 1-for-1 cash-and-T-bill reserves, gives users bankruptcy-remote claims, and imposes full AML/KYC. A controversial clause that still lets Big-Tech affiliates issue coins has been trimmed but not removed.

Why it matters: A clear stable-coin rulebook is the low-hanging fruit that could finally pull billions of dollars of offshore liquidity back on-shore—and set the tone for broader exchange and token rules later this year.

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2. ETF log-jam drags on

SEC Chair Maya Desai has bundled all non-BTC spot ETF applications (ETH, SOL, DOGE, etc.) into a single review cycle, delaying decisions until late Q3–Q4 2025. Lobbyists say the agency wants to see how the stable-coin framework lands before blessing more crypto products.

Why it matters: No fresh ETFs means the “Wall Street bid” is capped at Bitcoin for at least another quarter, reinforcing BTC dominance but leaving alt-coins dependent on pure crypto-native flows.

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3. Price watch:$BTC flirtation with six digits | Metric | Value (17 May 2025, 12-00 UTC) | 7-day Δ | |---|---|---| | Bitcoin spot price | $94,150 | +4.1 % | | Net ETF inflows (YTD) | $41 B | +$0.9 B | | CME futures open interest | $24.2 B | +3.5 % |

Institutional desks keep buying dips; two new reports argue flows alone could push BTC to $180-200 k in 2025.

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4. Near-term catalysts to watch | Date | Event | What to track | |---|---|---| | May 20–24 | Senate floor vote on GENIUS Act | Final text for amendments on Big Tech carve-out | | May 28 | FOMC minutes | Any hint of rate cuts that could weaken USD and lift risk assets | | June 3 | SEC comment-period deadline on the multi-asset ETF docket | New letters from BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale |