Key

Against all odds, the Senate’s stablecoin bill has regained political momentum, passing a key procedural vote Monday evening that has set the legislation on track for passage within days. 

Less than two weeks ago, the bill, dubbed the GENIUS Act, failed to pass the same procedural cloture vote—which ends debate on a measure and advances it towards full floor consideration. At the time, a perfect storm of political winds conspired to derail support for the bill among pro-crypto Democrats. Chief among them: mounting anger in the Democratic Party over President Donald Trump’s perceived crypto-related conflicts of interest.

But tonight, key Democrats jumped back aboard the measure. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Mark Warner (D-VA), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD)—all of whom voted against cloture on the GENIUS Act earlier this month—supported the measure tonight. Alsobrooks and Gillibrand initially co-sponsored the bill.

Having received more than 60 votes, the bill will now cruise towards a full floor vote, which could happen as soon as tomorrow, one Senate source familiar with the matter told Decrypt. If all goes according to plan, the vote on the bill itself should see the same margin of passage as tonight’s procedural vote. 

The bill would then need to pass a vote in the House before heading to President Trump’s desk. If signed into law, the GENIUS Act would establish a framework for legally issuing stablecoins in the United States. 

Stablecoins are crypto tokens, generally pegged to the U.S. dollar, that allow holders to enter and exit digital asset trades without accessing fiat currencies directly. They can also be used to easily send payments and remittances across borders. It is anticipated that once stablecoin legislation passes, once-hesitant Wall Street giants will flood the sector, bringing billions of dollars, if not trillions, into crypto.

What gave the GENIUS Act new wings just days after the bill nearly death spiraled? Last week, Senate Democrats ironed out a new draft of the legislation, which they touted as containing major concessions from Republicans on issues like conflicts of interest, national security protections, and Big Tech. 

But it’s unclear if those measures will have enough teeth to make them enforceable. While the new draft forbids all senior executive branch officials from launching their own stablecoins, for example, it still allows the president and vice president to do so—sidestepping the Trump-related concerns that made ethics a prominent issue for the legislation in the first place. 

In a similar vein, new language added to the bill in the eleventh hour would prevent Big Tech corporations from launching stablecoins if said corporations tracked and sold users’ sensitive financial data—unless they got customers’ consent to do so in their terms of service. 

Another factor that may have shifted political calculus enough to get the GENIUS Act over the 60-vote hump: increased lobbying pressure from industry leaders, who realized that if the bill didn’t pass, hopes for passing any crypto legislation on Capitol Hill this year might die along with it.

Coinbase, for instance, which boasts a tremendous lobbying presence in Washington, had previously dragged its feet in supporting standalone stablecoin legislation—a move intended to increase the likelihood of Congress passing a single crypto bill covering several industry sectors, but that nonetheless frustrated other digital asset policy players. In recent days, with crypto’s entire legislative agenda on life support, Coinbase notably turned up the heat in a push to get the GENIUS Act over the finish line. 

The firm’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, made explicit pleas for the bill to be passed immediately. Stand With Crypto, a pro-industry political watchdog launched by Coinbase, warned it would lower politicians’ grades if they voted against cloture on the GENIUS Act tonight—a move the organization notably did not make after the initial cloture vote on the bill earlier this month. Over the weekend, an in-app notification sent out by Coinbase, and seen by Decrypt, urged American users to send their senators a letter demanding the GENIUS Act be passed immediately.

Behind such signifiers churns an immense amount of money. Last year Coinbase, along with a handful of other major American crypto companies, raised over $300 million for pro-crypto super PACs that spent heavily on congressional races. The same super PACs have already raised tens of millions of dollars for the 2026 midterms.

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Source link