- The U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act 68–30, marking the first federal stablecoin law, despite progressive resistance and crypto-corruption concerns tied to Trump’s expanding ties.
- The bill grants broad regulatory power to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, sparking political friction in the House where anti-corruption measures were scrapped last-minute.
- While GENIUS resolves basic stablecoin rules, it delays tougher issues like DeFi, market structure, and federal vs. state oversight, highlighting the difficulty of even “simple” crypto laws.
The U.S. Senate has officially passed the first federal stablecoin legislation, pushing through the long-delayed GENIUS Act in a 68-30 vote after weeks of internal clashes and partisan maneuvering, and a lot of concerns over crypto-corruption.
There was substantial resistance from progressives and no shortage of political friction, including concerns over Donald Trump’s expanding crypto ties, but the bill survived with broad bipartisan backing.
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The GENIUS Act
The Senate’s passage of the GENIUS Act hands sweeping power to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who last week projected the US stablecoin market could balloon to over US$2T (AU$3.09T) in just a few years.
But the expanded authority and the bill’s political baggage are already setting the stage for a bitter fight in the House. A last-minute effort to include anti-corruption language targeting Trump and other officials was scrapped during negotiations, despite pressure from Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic critics.
Warren called for party-wide opposition, warning the bill would greenlight unchecked financial influence in the hands of political insiders.
That warning went unheeded. The bill passed, handing a win to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of its lead architects, and signaling that crypto legislation is now central to financial policy making.
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A Lot of Work To Do
What’s worrisome about this is that the GENIUS Act settles only the most basic regulatory questions but punts on the harder ones: market structure, DeFi protocols, federal vs. state oversight, systemic risk, etc.
Ironically, GENIUS was supposed to be the “easy one”. The most technically straightforward crypto legislation, it languished for months before reaching the Senate floor, where it failed once, then scraped through after tense backroom rewrites.
Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), speaking at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, admitted the effort nearly collapsed.
We thought it would be easiest to start with stablecoins,” she said. “It has been extremely difficult. I had no idea how hard this was going to be.
Cynthia Lummis, United States Senator.Credit: Source link
