Senate Republicans Introduce GENIUS Act to Regulate Stablecoins, Marking First Significant Foray into Crypto

The Senate Republican majority leader, John Thune, took to the chamber floor on Thursday morning to make a case for moving forward with stablecoin legislation — marking his first significant foray into the topic of crypto as Republicans grow frustrated with keeping what was once a bipartisan effort on track.

“Stablecoins should be made in the USA, but we can’t lead in innovation if there’s no clarity for the innovators,” Thune said in his speech on the Senate Floor, delivered in the runup to an afternoon vote meant to advance the debate on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act that would establish a U.S. regime to regulate stablecoin issuers.

“Americans are already using stablecoins and will continue to use them with or without legislation,” Thune argued, saying that the bill will establish safeguards against money laundering and threats to national security, in addition to protecting consumers with reserve requirements.

“The GENIUS Act is by no means the last word on digital assets,” the South Dakota lawmaker said, but he characterized it as a “first step toward bringing digital assets into our financial system.”

Though many Democrats expressed earlier support for the legislation and helped move it out of the Senate Banking Committee with an 18-6 vote, they’ve have thrown up loud objections to moving forward, focusing on President Donald Trump's personal crypto interests and the potential conflicts posed by those business ties. Senator Ruben Gallego has been in the vanguard of this backlash, despite his close ties to the industry, which supported his 2024 Senate campaign with $10 million in advertising paid for by an affiliate of the crypto-backed Fairshake political action committee.

The Senate is steaming toward a 1:45 p.m. Thursday so-called cloture vote, which would open debate in the legislation — a back-and-forth which itself could occupy days of floor time. But that next step would need several Democrats to pass the 60-vote required margin. Alongside Gallego, several of the Democrats who voted for the bill in committee have said they would oppose the cloture vote.

Seeming to address the Democrats' objection's to Trump's business dealings, Senator Tim Scott's Banking Committee released a “myths” statement about the bill on Thursday that pushed back on claims the effort would ease the ability for "elected officials" to profit from issuing stablecoins. (Trump-backed World Liberty Financial has put out its own coin.)"The GENIUS Act makes it clear that ethics laws apply to members of Congress and Senior Executives in the government," according to the committee's statement. "Importantly it clarifies that those ethics laws are applicable to the business of issuing a payment stablecoin."

But U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee that’s worked on its own stablecoin bill, argued on Thursday that the bill will lead to the president getting control over stablecoin policy because his administration has sought to undermine the independence of the federal agencies that will ultimately write the regulations."If stablecoin legislation is passed, agencies would draft rules that would be sent straight to Trump," she said in a speech on the House floor. "Trump and the White House would directly make edits that would benefit his own stablecoin business. His business could also make adjustments to their operation, knowing the rules before their competitors."

Elsewhere on Thursday, a coalition of anti-kleptocracy groups including Transparency International U.S. sent a letter to Thune flagging sections of the bill they argue could enable "a new era of illicit finance."

Thune made the case that Democrats should allow the bill to move to the debate stage so that the changes they want can be hashed out in the open.

Lawmakers and staffers in the Senate worked overnight into the early hours of Thursday fielding further concerns from Democratic members, leaving some expressing doubt about how successful the vote will be on what’s now the sixth version of this stablecoin bill.

The House of Representatives has been working on a similar bill that would eventually needed to be melded with this one before it can become law, but the Senate has long been the bottleneck for advancing crypto bills, and it promises to be the more difficult venue for clearing the industry's efforts.

"We have the opportunity to move the ball forward today," Thune said. "I encourage my colleagues to take it."

Read More: Dems Stall Stablecoin Bill, Jeopardizing More Important Crypto Regulation Bill