- The Genius Act is losing support from crypto-friendly Democrats in the US Senate.
- Bills in the Senate often fail to pass without a 60-vote supermajority.
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GM, Aleks here.
Landmark stablecoin legislation has hit a snag in the US Senate.
Over the weekend, several pro-crypto Democrats said they were pulling support for The Genius Act, a stablecoin bill moving rapidly through the Senate.
“We realize that the absence of regulation leaves consumers unprotected and vulnerable to predatory practices,” nine senators wrote in a statement on Saturday.
“However, the bill as it currently stands still has numerous issues that must be addressed.”
The Democrats are seeking tougher rules regarding anti-money laundering, foreign issuers, and potential risks to national security and the stability of the financial system.
Notably, four of those Democrats — Ruben Gallego, of Arizona; Mark Warner, of Virginia; Andy Kim, of New Jersey; and Lisa Blunt Rochester, of Delaware — had voted to advance the bill out of the banking committee in March.
A bipartisan committee vote would boost the odds that members of both parties collaborate when the Genius Act and other crypto bills come before the entire Senate, Warner said at the time.
Several Democrats appear to feel their earlier support was for nothing.
“This isn’t some reversal out of nowhere by Dems,” Gallego wrote on X, adding that he’s spent weeks negotiating with his Republican colleagues.
“The bill that was introduced for floor consideration back-pedaled on a lot of the progress we made and did not include other improvements we sought. It seems they want us to suck it up and vote for this bill without our input.”
To be sure, Republicans haven’t lost all Democratic support. New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand and Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks are co-sponsors, and they were not among the nine Democrats who put their name to Saturday’s statement.
But Republicans have a narrow 53-47 majority in the Senate, where the dreaded filibuster means most bills fail to pass without a 60-vote supermajority.
Politico reported Republicans were “stunned” by the Democrats’ reversal but remain hopeful they can win back their support.
Senator Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee, urged wavering colleagues to reconsider their position.
“We have a choice here,” he wrote on X. “Move forward and make any remaining changes needed in a bipartisan way, or show that digital asset and crypto legislation remains a solely Republican issue.”
President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have pledged to advance two significant pieces of crypto legislation this year: one addressing stablecoin issuance and the other addressing crypto market structure.
In addition to the Senate’s Genius Act, Republicans in the House of Representatives are pushing their own bill called the Stable Act that addresses dollar-pegged tokens.
Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.
