- The GENIUS Act establishes the first federal framework for dollar-pegged stablecoins, granting sweeping authority to the Division of Treasury and opening the door to banks, fintechs, and retailers.
- Democrats didn’t safe a provision barring the president from profiting, whilst Trump disclosed incomes $57 million from token gross sales in 2024 alone.
- Industry giants like Amazon and Walmart are reportedly shifting towards stablecoin-style choices as fee networks brace for disruption.
The Senate on Tuesday handed the GENIUS Act, a landmark invoice that for the first time establishes federal guardrails for U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins and creates a regulated pathway for personal corporations to subject digital {dollars} with the blessing of the federal authorities.
The invoice handed with a 68-30 vote.
It is a milestone day for the crypto industry, which put round $250 million into the 2024 cycle to elect what’s now thought-about to be the most pro-crypto Congress in U.S. history, and for President Donald Trump‘s sprawling digital asset empire.
“The GENIUS Act will shield customers, allow accountable innovation, and safeguard the dominance of the U.S. greenback,” mentioned Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., one of many sponsors of the invoice, in an announcement.
The invoice nonetheless faces hurdles within the Republican-held Home, however passage within the Senate alerts a turning level — not only for the expertise, however for the political clout behind it.
The GENIUS Act, quick for the Guiding and Establishing Nationwide Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, units guardrails for the industry, together with full reserve backing, month-to-month audits, and anti-money laundering compliance.
It additionally opens the door to a broader vary of issuers, together with banks, fintechs, and major retailers seeking to launch their very own stablecoins or combine them into present fee techniques.
The laws grants sweeping authority to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who final week informed a Senate appropriations subcommittee in a listening to that the U.S. stablecoin market may develop practically eightfold to over $2 trillion within the subsequent few years.
The invoice’s passage drew sharp criticism from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who accused Republicans of “rubberstamping Trump’s crypto corruption,” and permitting the president to promote “entry to the federal government for private revenue.”
Merkley had pushed for an modification to bar elected officers from personally profiting off digital belongings, however mentioned GOP lawmakers blocked all efforts to carry a ground vote.
In Could, Senate Democrats unveiled the “Finish Crypto Corruption Act,” spearheaded by Merkley and Minority Chief Chuck Schumer of New York, meant to ban elected officers and senior govt department personnel and their households from issuing or endorsing digital belongings.
GENIUS now heads to the Home, which has its personal model of a stablecoin invoice dubbed STABLE. Each prohibit yield-bearing shopper stablecoins — however diverge on who regulates what.
The Senate’s model centralizes oversight with Treasury, whereas the Home splits authority between the Federal Reserve, the Comptroller of the Forex, and others. Reconciling the 2 may take some time, in response to congressional aides.
The GENIUS Act was alleged to be the best crypto invoice to move, however took months to succeed in the Senate ground, failed as soon as, and handed solely after fierce negotiations.
“We thought it will be best to start out with stablecoins,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said on stage in Las Vegas at this yr’s Bitcoin 2025 convention, which targeted closely on stablecoins.
“It has been extraordinarily tough. I had no thought how arduous this was going to be,” she mentioned.
On the identical occasion, Sen. Invoice Hagerty, R-Tenn., echoed the frustration: “It has been homicide to get them there,” he mentioned of the 18 Senate Democrats who finally crossed the aisle.
Disrupting legacy rails
Stablecoins are a subset of cryptocurrencies pegged to the worth of real-world belongings. About 99% of all stablecoins are tethered to the value of the U.S. greenback.
They provide prompt settlement and decrease transaction charges, slicing out the middlemen and immediately threatening legacy fee rails.
Shopify has already rolled out USDC-powered funds by way of Coinbase and Stripe. Bank of America‘s CEO mentioned last week at a Morgan Stanley convention that the financial institution is having conversations with the industry and individually exploring stablecoin issuance.
Deutsche Bank discovered that stablecoin transactions hit $28 trillion final yr, surpassing that of Mastercard and Visa, mixed.
Nonetheless, there are limits. The GENIUS Act restricts non-financial giant tech corporations from immediately issuing stablecoins except they set up or accomplice with regulated monetary entities — a provision meant to blunt monopoly issues.
JPMorgan Chase, in the meantime, is taking a unique route, launching JPMD, a deposit token designed to operate like a stablecoin however tightly built-in with the standard banking system.
Issued on Coinbase’s Base blockchain, JPMD is barely out there to institutional purchasers and presents options like 24/7 settlement and curiosity funds — a part of the broader push by legacy finance to adapt to the stablecoin period with out ceding floor to crypto-native corporations.
Trump’s stake
Whereas Democrats tried to amend the invoice to forestall the president from profiting off crypto ventures, the ultimate laws solely bars members of Congress and their households from doing so.
Trump’s first monetary disclosure as president, launched Friday, revealed he earned at the least $57 million in 2024 alone from token gross sales tied to World Liberty Monetary, a crypto platform intently aligned together with his political model.
He holds practically 16 billion WLFI governance tokens — the crypto equal of voting shares — which may very well be value near $1 billion on paper, primarily based on prior personal gross sales.
That is only one slice of the Trump crypto pie.
The household’s ventures, which embody the controversial $TRUMP meme coin, a $2.5 billion bitcoin Treasury and proposed bitcoin and ether ETFs by way of Reality.Fi, and a newly launched mining agency referred to as American Bitcoin, mirror an aggressive push into digital finance.
Forbes not too long ago estimated Trump’s crypto holdings at practically $1 billion, lifting his complete web value to $5.6 billion.
