On Tuesday evening, the Senate decisively voted in favor of the GENIUS Act with a 68-30 count, enjoying bipartisan backing. Eighteen Democrats teamed up with a majority of Republicans to pass this bill, marking the first federal regulatory guidelines for stablecoins, which are crypto tokens linked to the value of the US dollar.
The bill’s future was uncertain for a while. In May, nine Democrats who had previously supported the GENIUS Act unexpectedly withdrew their backing, proposing changes to the bill’s language. Soon after, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-WA) stopped a procedural move to bring the bill to a vote, referencing several incidents involving the Trump family’s cryptocurrency activities, including a controversial dinner event for significant $TRUMP memecoin holders.
Senator Warren, a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee known for her focus on consumer protection, ultimately opposed the final version of the GENIUS Act. In a speech on June 11th, she expressed concerns that the bill lacked sufficient regulatory safeguards to prevent misconduct: “It would make Trump responsible for overseeing his own financial company and, critically, his competitors.”
It’s a win, however, for the burgeoning digital assets industry, which has poured hundreds of millions into the political influence game in Washington, hiring political consultants and even a few Members of Congress on their behalf. In an interview prior to Tuesday’s vote, Seth Hertline, Head of Global Policy at the crypto wallet company Ledger, described the GENIUS Act as a political bellwether for the industry as a whole. “If the GENIUS Act derails, everything behind it derails,” he told The Verge.
