- The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act failed to pass a key Senate vote on May 8.
- The bill will return to the Senate floor for debate on Monday.
- Democrats who are reluctant to hand Donald Trump a win argue that the legislation would advantage the president’s own stablecoin interests.
Senators are expected to debate the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act on Monday, May 19.
Two weeks after the bill fell short of the votes needed to pass the Senate, lawmakers are making a final push for support that has been complicated by President Donald Trump’s ties to the USD1 stablecoin.
You’ll Want To See This
GENIUS Act Returns to Senate Floor
Sponsored by Senators Bill Hagerty, Tim Scott, Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis, the GENIUS Act aims to create a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the U.S.
Key provisions of the bill include reserve and audit requirements, oversight rules for issuers, consumer protections and anti-money laundering measures.
When the Senate voted on a motion to advance the bill on May 8, the GENIUS Act received only 49 votes, short of the sixty required to proceed.
Despite initially garnering bipartisan support from the Banking Committee, most Democrats in the Senate ultimately opposed the GENIUS Act.
Republican Senators Rand Paul and Josh Hawley also voted against the bill, which they argued had been rushed through without proper debate.
However, as the bill’s supporters work to resolve their colleagues’ objections, Senators Gillibrand and Lummis recently expressed their hope that the Genius Act would pass the Senate by Memorial Day, May 26.
Bipartisan Consensus Remains Elusive
The GENIUS Act isn’t the first piece of legislation aimed at regulating stablecoins in the U.S.
The Stablecoin Classification and Regulation Act (2020), the Stablecoin Transparency Act (2022) and the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act (2023) all attempted something similar.
Several bills aimed at general-purpose crypto regulation, such as the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act and the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, have also sought to include stablecoins within their scope.
Yet each of these bills failed to attain the necessary support in Congress.
Among Democrats, crypto hawks favor an assertive role for federal regulators and strong consumer protections that extend to how stablecoins are marketed, traded and monitored.
Meanwhile, libertarian-leaning Republicans prefer a more hands-off approach that leaves licensing and oversight to individual states.
After years of impasse, the GENIUS Act may finally reach a compromise both sides can live with.
However, Democrats who are reluctant to hand Donald Trump a win argue that the legislation would advantage the president’s own stablecoin interests.
Democrats Denounce Trump’s Stablecoin
Officially launched in April 2025, USD1 was developed by Trump’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.
After just a month, the stablecoin already has a market cap of over $2 billion and has picked up big-name users, including the Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX.
Critics of Trump’s increasingly deep ties to the crypto space argue that products like USD1 enable wholesale corruption at the highest degree.
In a recent statement , the office of Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that without measures to prevent elected officials from participating in stablecoin-related business ventures, the GENIUS Act would “turbocharge President Trump’s ability to benefit from his crypto deals.”
“Congress is writing a law expected to massively increase the size of the stablecoin market and increase the value of stablecoin businesses,” the memo stated.
Denouncing Trump’s “outrageous stablecoin-related activities,” it said the bill in its current form would only “fuel his crypto profits.”
Was this Article helpful?
