June 11 (UPI) —
The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly advanced legislation for a regulatory method for payment with stablecoins.
The cloture, which ended debate, was
approved 68-30
, including 18 Democrats. It clears the way for final approval for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS. Two Republicans, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Josh Hawley of Missouri, voted no.
A stablecoin, which supporters say is a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value, is typically pegged to another asset such as a currency such as a U.S. dollar or a commodity, including gold. Other digital cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, can experience significant price fluctuations and are not part of the Senate legislation.
For passage in the Senate, there needs to be at least 60 votes. On Tuesday, two House committees easily approved a bill that establishes a regulatory framework for digital assets, not just stablecoin, called the CLARITY Act.
“We want to bring cryptocurrency into the mainstream, and the GENIUS Act will help us do that,”
said
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, adding there was “more work to be done” for Congress in regard to digital assets, referring to the House’s bill.
The bill would require stablecoins to be fully backed by U.S. dollars or similar liquid assets, mandate annual audits for issuers with more than $50 billion in market capitalization and add language around foreign issuance.
The cloture ended an open amendments process. Democrats had sought to add a provision that would prevent President Donald Trump and other elected officials from profiting off stablecoins.
“Let me be clear, this did not happen by accident,” Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C.,
said on the Senate floor
before the vote. “It happened because we led. To those who said Washington could not act, to those who said Washington could not act, to those who doubted bipartisanship — let’s prove them wrong.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York voted against the bill along with other prominent Democrats.
“The GENIUS act attempts to set up some guardrails for buying and selling a type of cryptocurrency, one type called a stablecoin,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.,
said
on the Senate floor before his no vote.
“Well, we need guardrails that ensure that government officials aren’t openly asking people to buy their coins in order to increase their personal profit or their family’s profit,” he added. “Where are those guardrails in this bill? They’re completely, totally absent.”
Some Democrats were concerned about foreign issuers, anti-money laundering standards, potential corporate issuance of stablecoins and Trump’s deepening ties to crypto ventures.
Trump and his wife, Melania, launched meme coins days before his inauguration on Jan. 20. His affiliated venture, World Liberty Financial, recently launched its stablecoin. Trump Media is planning to build a multi-billion dollar Bitcoin treasury. And American Bitcoin,a mining firm backed by his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., is planning to go public via a Gryphon merger.
“It’s extremely unhelpful that we have a president who’s involved in this industry, and I would love to ban this activity, but that does not diminish the excellent work of this legislation,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who approved the measure, said.
“It does not diminish the hard work that bipartisan group of senators put into this to make a difference and to write a law that can protect consumers, that can protect our financial services industry, that can protect the strength of the dollar, and that can protect people who would like access to capital.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who voted against cloture, said: “Through his crypto business, Trump has created an efficient means to trade presidential favors like tariff exemptions, pardons and government appointments for hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of dollars from foreign governments, from billionaires and from large corporations. By passing the GENIUS Act, the Senate is not only about to bless this corruption, but to actively facilitate its expansion.”
