A vote on the GENIUS stablecoin bill is reportedly set to be moved forward by lawmakers in the US Senate before the Memorial Day holiday.
It was reportedly told by US Senate Majority Leader John Thune to Republican lawmakers that a bill on stablecoin regulation would be addressed by the chamber before the May 26 Memorial Day holiday.
It was reported by Politico on April 29 that the comments were made by Thune in a closed-door meeting with Republican senators, who hold a slim majority in the chamber. The GENIUS Act, which stands for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty in February and passed by the Senate Banking Committee in March.
No mention was made by Thune of any crypto or blockchain-related bills in his public comments on US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, several executive orders with the potential to affect US crypto policy, including one on stablecoins, have been signed by Trump. However, many of these actions do not carry the force of law without an act of Congress.
The proposed GENIUS bill could essentially restrict the issuance of payment stablecoins in the United States to entities classified as “permitted payment stablecoin issuers.” A companion bill to the legislation has been proposed by the House of Representatives, which is also controlled by Republicans: the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act.
An executive order signed by the president on Jan. 23 led to the establishment of a working group tasked with studying the potential creation and maintenance of a national crypto stockpile, along with a regulatory framework for stablecoins. The STABLE and GENIUS acts were introduced by Republican lawmakers following this.
The order was introduced by Trump just before World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm backed by the president’s family, launched its US-dollar pegged USD1 stablecoin. It has been argued by many Democratic lawmakers that Trump’s ties to the firm, combined with his political influence and position, could present an “extraordinary conflict of interest that could create unprecedented risks to our financial system” as the two stablecoin bills are considered by Congress.
