GENIUS bill gains Senate approval, advances to House for deliberation

• The Senate passed the GENIUS bill in a 68-30 vote on Tuesday.
• The bill advances to the House of Reps for deliberation and, consequently, a full floor vote.
• If the GENIUS bill passes the House, it will arrive at the President's desk for it to be signed into law.

The United States (US) Senate has passed the Guidance and Establishing Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) bill in a 68-30 vote on Tuesday, bringing it closer to President Donald Trump's desk. The bill now heads to the House for deliberation before a final vote.

Stablecoin bill advances to House as Senate pushes legislation forward

In a highly anticipated move, the US Senate passed the GENIUS bill on Tuesday in a 68-30 vote, marking the first major digital asset-related bill to gain Senate support. The bill now awaits final deliberation in the House before it can move on to the President's desk.

The vote comes less than a week after lawmakers invoked cloture with a 68-30 procedural vote, which signaled strong support. The GENIUS bill has seen a dramatic shift in support since its introduction by Senator Bill Hagerty, Tim Scott, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cynthia Lummis and Angela Alsobrooks on February 4.

"Today, on a bipartisan basis, the Senate passed its first piece of major legislation this Congress with my bill, the GENIUS Act. With GENIUS, the United States is one step closer to becoming the crypto capital of the world," Senator Bill Hagerty wrote in an X post on Tuesday.

The bill aims to regulate stablecoin issuers in the US by requiring them to maintain full reserves backed by US Dollars (USD), short-term treasuries, or similarly liquid assets. It also enforces anti-money laundering (AML) protocols, transaction monitoring and customer due diligence, aligning them with traditional financial institutions.

Democrats blocked the first cloture vote for the GENIUS bill in early May, citing weak consumer protections and unresolved conflicts of interest tied to former President Trump's crypto ventures. However, after weeks of bipartisan negotiations, key amendments were added to strengthen the bill's oversight and security measures.

The GENIUS bill has also gained traction among financial institutions and major corporations, which are capitalizing on the push for regulatory clarity. 

Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are reportedly evaluating internal strategies for entering the stablecoin market, pending the outcome of the bill. Meanwhile, companies like Amazon and Walmart have reportedly begun exploring the use of stablecoins for transactional efficiency and customer rewards programs. 

However, the GENIUS Act includes provisions that would make it illegal for non-financial firms to issue stablecoins independently without regulatory approval.

With the bill moving out of the Senate, the spotlight shifts to the House, which is already pushing for its own crypto market legislation.

The House will decide whether to combine the GENIUS bill with the market structure bill, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act), introduced by the House Financial Services Committee in May. The bill, which seeks to bring certain cryptocurrency regulations under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has garnered support in the past month, competing with the GENIUS bill for backing.

The CLARITY Act splits regulatory oversight between the CFTC and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). It establishes that the CFTC oversees digital commodities and their spot markets, while the SEC will retain jurisdiction over crypto investment contracts. The bill also highlights a joint regulatory effort between both agencies for payment stablecoin regulation,

The House must decide whether to advance its bill or align with the Senate's momentum by adopting the GENIUS Act as the legislative path forward.