A bipartisan bill to advance and regulate stablecoins was shot down on the Senate floor Friday after Democrats who previously voted in favor of the legislation changed course.
Sources close to GOP party leadership say Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, rallied the party against the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act ahead of a vote to take up the bill on the Senate floor.
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“Democrats put partisanship above policy and obstruction above innovation when they blocked a vote on the GENIUS Act – bipartisan legislation they helped write – that would help ensure innovation happens here in the United States, Senator Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, told Fox News Digital Saturday. “This was not about the substance of the bill; it was about appeasing the most radical elements of their party who want to punish President Trump and stop his agenda at all costs, but it’s the American people who will pay the price.”
Sen. Tim Scott, one of the original co-sponsors of the bill, told Fox News Digital in March he expected stablecoin legislation to be signed into law “by August.”
Despite the setback, Scott told Fox that “Republican colleagues and I are not done fighting – we will continue to work on digital assets legislation to help make the United States the crypto capital of the world.”
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In the dramatic unfolding on the Senate floor Friday, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, who voted in favor of the GENIUS Act in committee, moved for the vote on the bill on Monday, but Warren could be heard objecting to the motion, according to sources who were monitoring the floor.
“While this bill is not perfect, we have made many improvements through our bipartisan committee work – including better protections for customers in the event of bankruptcy, addressing national security risks, and strengthening guardrails to preserve financial stability – and I believe it is a step in the right direction,” Gallego explained on the Senate.
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The bill’s intention is to allow a stablecoin to track with the U.S. dollar in an effort to reduce volatility in the crypto markets and provide validity to a roughly $3.1 trillion industry. The crypto space has gone largely unregulated, despite China introducing their digital yuan back in 2022.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune also addressed the Democratic shift in a speech ahead of the vote, saying it “makes you wonder if this is about the bill at all – or if it’s simply Democrats obstructing because they want to deny Republicans, or President Trump, a bipartisan win.”
One of the leading reasons Democrats decided against the bill is a stablecoin that ties to President Trump. Dems argue that the president would personally profit off of advancing the legislation.
“Now, given the fact that Democrats keep moving the goal posts, it’s hard not to suspect that that is the case,” Thune added. “And I have to say, Mr. President, that that is deeply disappointing.”
