US senators on Tuesday passed landmark stablecoin legislation designed to register and regulate US issuers of dollar-backed crypto assets.
The bill, dubbed the Genius Act, now heads to the House of Representatives, where lawmakers have been working on their own stablecoin bill, the Stable Act.
House lawmakers could attempt to reconcile the two bills, or fold the Genius Act into a crypto mega-bill known as the Clarity Act.
The Genius Act passed 68-30, attracting support from nearly every Senate Republican and more than a dozen Democrats.
Bipartisan passage
Introduced in February, the bill floundered last month when pro-crypto Democrats threatened to walk away from negotiations over concerns it didn’t adequately protect consumers, the financial system, or national security.
“Today’s strong bipartisan passage of the Genius Act is proof of what can be achieved through honest negations and a willingness to work across the aisle,” Senator Reuben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, said in a statement after the bill’s passage.