US GENIUS Act looking smarter, passes key Senate Vote

The US Senate's GENIUS Act, which seeks to regulate stablecoins in the USA, was looking wobbly a few weeks ago when it failed a key procedural vote in the US Senate, with a number of Democrats, including the bill's co-sponsor, voting it down. It has been reported that the reasons behind this were growing concerns at conflicts of interest around President Trump and crypto ventures involving his family. Now those same Democrats have returned to support the bill's progress, voting it past the key 60 vote threshold which ends debate and enables an up or down majority vote on the bill.

Since Republicans hold the majority in the Senate, if the bill is given a vote it is near certain to pass and head to the lower house of Congress for a vote before it could be sent to President Trump's desk for signature. Decrypt said:

It is anticipated that once stablecoin legislation passes, once-hesitant Wall Street giants will flood the sector, bringing billions of dollars, if not trillions, into crypto.

Left-leaning MSNBC said the bill was pro big tech and:

would grant the biggest companies in the history of the world a dangerous opportunity to operate their own financial systems, immediately extending their monopolistic power to banking and competing with the U.S. dollar

Changes to the bill seemed to get Democrats on board, including prohibitions on these big tech companies selling user data, which may be hollow for public blockchain stablecoins given how easily transactions can be tracked, as well as increased lobbying from the crypto industry, which spent over 9 figures on lobbying and donations in the 2024 US elections, demonstrating how the industry has matured and how much value it is bringing to the global economy.

The news of the Senate vote was followed this week with Hong Kong passing its own stablecoin legislation. The UK, Singapore and Australia are also working on their own bills to recognise stablecoins.

This represents a continued move towards regulation embracing, instead of blocking, the deployment of new, decentralised and automated blockchain systems, representing the first upgrade to the current financial system in decades.

By Michael Bacina with Steven Pettigrove