McHenry predicts rapid cryptocurrency trading as Witt broker talks.

Former House Financial Services Chairman Patrick McHenry and White House Counselor Patrick Witt, speaking on CoinDesk Live at the Ondo Summit in New York, said a major cryptocurrency market rescue bill could be passed within months.

Latest developments: Optimism is rising in Washington and across the industry.

• McHenry and Witt discussed the growing momentum for landmark cryptocurrency legislation amid the intensifying debate over returns, DeFi, and ethics.
• McHenry predicted the final market rescue bill could reach the president’s desk by Memorial Day.
• Witt said President Trump has personally prioritized legislation since passage of the Genius Act.

Push inside the White House: Negotiations are narrowing.

• Witt said a recent White House-hosted conference on stablecoin yields surfaced “new areas of consensus” while clearly defining remaining red lines.
• He said the administration’s goal is to move from high-level principles to drafting actual legislative language.
• Witt emphasized that his role is to broker a deal that can survive scrutiny in the Senate and House.

Challenge: Stablecoin returns are the biggest unresolved issue.

• Witt said there is broad agreement on prohibiting deceptive practices, including marketing stablecoins as FDIC-insured deposits.
• The dispute centers on whether centralized exchanges should be allowed to pay passive yields on idle stablecoin balances.
• While banks, especially community lenders, see yields as a threat to deposited funds, cryptocurrency companies argue that yields drive platform engagement.

Why DeFi is important: McHenry says these are the basics.

• McHenry said the market rescue bill “doesn’t work without DeFi.”
• He argued that decentralization is the source of cryptocurrency’s efficiency, transparency, and lower costs compared to traditional finance.
• McHenry said tokenized lending products are already cheaper than traditional securities lending, suggesting strong market demand.

politics: Ethical issues loom, but they cannot stop its passage.

• McHenry said ethics rules should apply permanently to all public officials, rather than targeting a single administration or family.
• Witt said some Democratic proposals would impose sweeping restrictions on spouses of public employees and are “overly broad in scope.”
• Both said narrowing the ethical compromises could still garner bipartisan support, but Republicans could push the bill forward on a partisan vote if necessary.

Next steps: Compressed legislative schedule.

• Witt said the drafting team is now “exchanging papers” and working through specific legal language.
• He said the White House was pressuring banks and cryptocurrency companies to negotiate in good faith.
• McHenry said Senate action could come before Easter, beginning a quick sprint toward final passage.

Watch CoinDesk live from Ondo Summit here.