Washington (AP) – The Senate adopted legislation on Tuesday which would regulate a form of cryptocurrency known as Stablecoins, the first of what the industry hopes will be a wave of invoices to strengthen its legitimacy and reassure consumers.
The rapid legislation, which was adopted by a vote of 68-30 and will be sent to the Chamber for potential revisions, occurs in the campaign cycle in 2024 in which the cryptographic industry ranked among The best political expenses in the country, emphasize Its growing influence in Washington and beyond.
Eighteen Democratic senators crossed the aisle to vote on Tuesday for the legislation, to defend itself with the republican majority of the Senate 53-47. The Republican senses Josh Hawley and Rand Paul were the only members of their party to oppose the measure.
It was the second major Bipartisan bill to advance the Senate this year, after The Laken Riley Act on the application of immigration in January.
However, most democrats have opposed the bill. They have raised concerns that the measure does not make much to tackle the personal financial interests of President Donald Trump in cryptographic space.
“We could not include everything we would have wanted, but it was a good bipartite effort,” said senator Angela Alsobrooks, D-MD on Monday. Alsobrooks, co-sponsor of the bill, added: “It is an unregulated area which will now be regulated.”
Senator Bill Hagerty, R -Tenn., The sponsor of the bill, said on the floor of the Senate before the vote that the legislation will have “large -scale implications” for the financial system – a “changing development development” which, according to him, will put it in the 21st century.
“With this bill, the United States is close to being a world leader in crypto,” said Hagerty.
Known as Genius Act, the bill would establish railing and consumer protections for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency generally set to the US dollar. The acronym means “to guide and establish national innovation for American stables”.
The bill only needed a simple majority vote to spend Tuesday, after having already erased its greatest obstacle to the procedure last week during a vote of 68-30, with 18 democrats who return with the Republicans. But the bill faced more resistance than initially provided.
Trump’s participation in Crypto
There is a provision in the bill which prohibits members of the Congress and their families from taking advantage of the stablecoins. But this ban does not extend to the president and his family, even if Trump builds an crypto empire of the White House.
Last month, the Republican President organized a private dinner in his golf club in Virginia with the best investors in a Trump brand room. His family has an important interest in World Liberty FinancialA crypto project that launched its own stablecoin, USD1.
Trump said he won $ 57.35 million in token sales at World Liberty Financial in 2024, according to a public financial disclosure published on Friday. A coin related to him has generated about $ 320 million in fees, although the profits are divided between several investors.
Administration largely supports the growth of crypto and its integration into the economy. Before Tuesday’s vote, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Senate to adopt the bill, saying that it could help stable and “transform into a market of $ 3.7 billions by the end of the decade”.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase – the largest crypto exchange in the country and a big defender of the bill – met Trump and praised his first movements on the crypto. Last weekend, Coinbase was among the most important brands that sponsored a parade in Washington commemorating the army’s 250th anniversary – an event that coincided with Trump’s 79th anniversary.
But the cryptographic industry emphasizes that they consider the legislative effort as bipartisan, pointing champions on each side of the aisle.
“The Act on Engineering will be the most important digital asset legislation to adopt the US Senate,” said the chairman of the Senate banks committee Tim Scott, Rs.C., before a key vote last week. “This is the product of Bipartite work months.”
Some Democrats oppose
The bill struck a tough ordeal in early May, when a block of Senate democrats who had previously supported the bill reversed the course and voted to prevent it from moving forward. This caused new negotiations involving Republicans of the Senate, Democrats and the White House, which finally produced the compromise version which won the passage on Tuesday.
Alsobrooks said that “many changes” were made during negotiations and “it is a much better deal because we were all at the table”.
Before the vote on Tuesday, the senator of GOP Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis, said that she was “agree” with the place where stable legislation landed after negotiations.
“I’m not delighted, but it’s okay,” said Lummis, one of the co-sponsors of the bill.
However, the bill leaves unresolved concerns concerning conflicts of presidential interests – a question which remains a source of tension within the Democratic Caucus.
“The adoption of the law on engineering without strong anti-corruption measures holds a seal of conference approval on President Trump selling access to the government for personal profit,” Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley said in a statement after the adoption of the bill.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-MASS., Was among the most frank as a classification member of the senatorial banking committee, warning that the bill created a “super highway” for Trump’s corruption. She also warned that the bill would allow large technological companies, such as Amazon and Meta, to launch their own stablecoins.
Among the Democrats who supported the bill, there was the senator of the first mandate Elissa Slotkin, who received $ 10 million in support from a cryptographic political action committee during his race in Michigan last year. Slotkin recognized that the bill “was not perfect” but called it a “bipartite start -up and bipartite” to regulate stablecoins.
Stablescoin legislation is still faced with several obstacles before reaching the president’s office. It must erase the republican majority closely held in the House, where legislators can try to attach a broader bill of the market structure – radical legislation which could make adoption through the Senate more difficult.
Trump said he wanted stable legislation on his desk before the congress breaks for his August recreation, now within 50 days.
