I think crypto legislation in the form of the GENIUS Act passing is really similar to the encryption wars of the 90's. Like encryption, crypto has potential for both innovation and carries new legal/social risks. In the 90's the U.S. faced a choice: restrict a powerful technology out of fear, or embrace and regulate it wisely.

We embraced encryption (after a lot of backlash to the Clinton admin earlier proposals) and the result is the secure web, e-commerce, messaging, and the modern internet as we know it.

GENIUS represents a really similar crossroads IMO.