US Senate votes to move forward with GENIUS Act as stablecoin legislation picks up speed

The U.S. Senate voted 68 to 30 to move forward with legislation to regulate stablecoins setting it up for an imminent final vote. 

The Senate voted on Wednesday to invoke cloture on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS for short. Cloture is a procedural move that clears the way for further debate.

Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., one of the bill’s cosponsors, said the bill was a significant win for innovation and national security, while pointing to bipartisan efforts. 

“Let me be clear, this did not happen by accident,” Scott said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “It happened because we led. To those who said Washington could not act, to those who said Washington could not act, to those who doubted bipartisanship — let’s prove them wrong.” 

Some Democrats voted no on the bill including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts among others. Other Democrats voted in support including Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona.

The Senate bill would require stablecoins to be fully backed by U.S. dollars or similarly liquid assets, mandate annual audits for issuers with more than $50 billion in market capitalization, and add language around foreign issuance.

President Donald Trump’s advisors threw their support behind the bill on Monday in a statement of administration policy. Trump has said he wants to have stablecoin legislation at his desk to sign before August.

“If S. 1582 were presented to the President in its current form, his senior advisors would recommend that he sign it into law,” according to the statement.

Invoking cloture on GENIUS sets it up for final passage on Monday unless Republican and Democratic leadership reach a time agreement that shortens debate on the bill and moves up the final vote, a Senate aide told The Block. 

If the GENIUS Act passes the Senate, its path is less clear in the House of Representatives, where the House Financial Services Committee has advanced its own stablecoin legislation, the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy Act, out of its committee 32-17 in May.

The full House has not voted on that bill yet.

Both the Senate and House will have to come to a consensus on their bills. Both have differences in how issuers are regulated at the state and federal levels. They also differ in how foreign issuers like Tether will be regulated.

Ups and downs

The full Senate voted in May to invoke cloture on GENIUS, but a first attempt garnered no support from Democrats. About a week later, the Senate voted 66-32 to invoke cloture.

Democrats had cited concerns over provisions related to foreign issuers, anti-money laundering standards, potential corporate issuance of stablecoins, and Trump’s deepening ties to crypto ventures, including one that recently launched a stablecoin.

Trump and his family have embraced digital assets, launching their own memecoins shortly before his 2025 inauguration and several other crypto efforts. His affiliated venture, World Liberty Financial, recently launched its stablecoin while Trump Media is planning to build a multi-billion dollar Bitcoin treasury.

Trump’s foray into crypto has also been a point of contention for lawmakers also looking to advance a bill to regulate the crypto industry at large. Some lawmakers have floated the idea of combining a stablecoin bill with a larger crypto market structure bill.

On Tuesday evening, the House Financial Services Committee voted 32-19 to advance such a crypto bill, but was met with a slew of proposed amendments from Democrats to address Trump’s conflicts of interest. Earlier in the day, the House Agriculture Committee voted 47 to 6 to advance the bill.

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