Senate’s Stablecoin Bill Heads to Final Vote After 68-30 Procedural Vote

The stablecoin bill moving through the U.S. Senate reportedly got closer to final passage Wednesday (June 11) after a 68 to 30 procedural vote removed an obstacle.

The vote eliminated some proposed amendments to the GENIUS Act and made it likely that the final passage of the bill will come next week, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, said Wednesday that he aims to pass the bill within days and hopes the House will move quickly to send it to be signed into law by President Donald Trump, according to the report.

In remarks prepared for delivery on the Senate floor before the vote, the GENIUS Act’s sponsor, Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tennessee, said the legislation will create a clear and comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins.

Hagerty said the bill’s provisions will protect consumers, promote innovation, facilitate cross-border payments, increase efficiencies in capital markets and drive demand for U.S. Treasuries.

“If we fail to act now, not only will these benefits slip away — we will also fall behind in global competitiveness,” Hagerty said in his remarks. “Without a regulatory framework, stablecoin innovation will proliferate overseas — not in America!”

An opponent of the GENIUS Act, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, said on the Senate floor before the vote that the bill poses a threat to the country’s financial system, national security and democracy.

Warren said the bill in its current form would facilitate corruption, allow conglomerates to take over the money supply, drain deposits from community banks, enable easier access to money for illicit activity, increase the likelihood of scams targeting consumers and threaten the financial system.

“The bill permits stablecoin issuers to invest in risky assets and allows them to engage in risky non-stablecoin activities, like private credit or derivatives trading,” Warren said on the Senate floor. “At the same time, the bill constrains regulators’ ability to apply capital and liquidity safeguards to limit the chances of stablecoin failure.”

The 68 votes the GENIUS Act received Wednesday surpassed the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster and move to a final vote.

Still, the bill has a long way to go before it reaches the president’s desk, PYMNTS reported Tuesday (June 10).