The Senate passed legislation Tuesday, 68-30, that would establish regulations for stablecoins, concluding weeks of work on the bill and marking a significant step in cryptocurrency policy.
Democrats were divided on the bill, with 18 voting in favor of it but a large faction remaining steadfast in opposition due to concerns over what they called weak protections for consumers, national security and financial stability.
Supporters said the bill would bring regulatory clarity to the stablecoin market, catalyze a key advance in the payment system and strengthen the dollar’s position as the global reserve currency.
Stablecoins are digital currencies pegged to a reserve asset — in this case, the U.S. dollar. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., would require issuers to maintain liquid reserves of safe investments such as U.S. Treasury debt, insured deposits and overnight Treasury repurchase agreements. Depending on the nature of the issuer, the regulator could be a federal or state supervisory agency.
“Today, on a bipartisan basis, the Senate will pass its first major digital assets legislation ever, the Genius Act,” Hagerty said on the Senate floor before the vote, referring to the nickname for the bill titled the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act. “With this bill, the United States is one step closer to becoming the global leader in crypto. Today will be remembered as an inflection point for innovation in the United States of America.”
The bill is similar but not identical to a stablecoin bill the House Financial Services Committee approved on April 2.
The stablecoin legislation is one part of establishing cryptocurrency policy. The other piece is to set rules for the offering, sale and oversight of digital assets, which is known as market structure.
House Financial Services approved a market structure bill on June 10.
“Congress must pass comprehensive market structure legislation in the coming months that draws a line between a security and commodity and creates a pathway for digital asset exchanges to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. and a co-sponsor of the stablecoin bill, said on the Senate floor.
After a weekslong effort to accumulate enough Democratic support to overcome procedural hurdles on the stablecoin bill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he wants the measure to be the foundation for House action.
“The leader would like the House to take up the Senate-passed bill,” a Thune spokesperson wrote in an email. “He also finds it important to do market structure separately.”
Many Democrats raised concerns that the bill is a gift to the cryptocurrency industry and both ignores and facilitates President Donald Trump’s crypto conflicts of interest. The Trump family has stakes in a memecoin and a stablecoin. They objected to Thune’s not allowing votes on amendments.
“If the Senate passes this legislation, it would give Congress’ blessing for President Trump and his family to further enrich themselves with very little protection for consumers,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., said in a Monday floor speech.
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