Stablecoin Bill Heads to Senate After Vote in Banking Committee

A stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act, is headed to the full Senate after being advanced by an 18-6 vote in the Senate Banking Committee.

The Thursday (March 13) vote puts bill on a “fast track” in the Senate, as it is a priority of President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said in a Thursday post on X that he was pleased to see the bill pass with bipartisan support.

“This legislation is a critical first step in establishing a safe and pro-growth regulatory framework that will unleash innovation and advance the President’s mission to make America the world capital of crypto,” Hagerty said. “I look forward to seeing this bill pass the Senate in the near future and ultimately signed into law by President Trump.”

An opponent of the bill in its current form, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in opening remarks delivered before the vote that, without updates, the bill would ignore basic consumer protections, lack basic national security protections, and lack basic safeguards necessary to ensure that stablecoins “don’t blow up our entire financial system.”

“If we can find compromises on these issues today, I’m prepared to support this bill,” Warren said before the vote. “If not, I will work to defeat it. Because we are not going to get a second chance to do this right, and we will all have to live with the consequences of what we do here today.”

The GENIUS Act is the most prominent stablecoin bill and proposes a regulatory balance between state and federal oversight that allows smaller issuers to operate under state supervision while placing larger stablecoin providers under federal jurisdiction, among other requirements, PYMNTS reported March 7.

Similar legislation is being worked on by the House Financial Services Committee, according to Thursday’s Bloomberg report.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., said Thursday that he commended Hagerty and the Senate Banking Committee for advancing the GENIUS Act, according to a post on X by the Financial Services GOP account that was reposted by Hill.

“I look forward to continuing our work with our Senate counterparts to enact a bicameral bill that provides a clear federal framework for payment stablecoins,” Hill said in the post.