A Senate vote on Monday advanced the delayed stablecoin legislation through a 66–32 procedural vote that also served to restart one of Donald Trump’s main financial initiatives and displayed growing political power from cryptocurrency entities.
The bipartisan vote occurred after Senate Democrats stopped the bill because of concerns about potential Trump family conflicts of interest in digital assets. The legislation will face a final vote sometime this week after passing the Senate.
The digital finance industry relies heavily on stablecoins which are cryptocurrencies that stabilize their value at the level of traditional currencies including the U.S. dollar despite existing in a state of minimal regulatory oversight. The new framework would force stablecoin issuers to keep matching reserves while needing to register with financial regulators and undergo regular audit inspections thus making them similar to traditional banking institutions and money market funds.
Tech giants including Meta and Google lost their ability to issue stablecoins through Senate approval of stricter foreign issuer oversight as part of moderate Democratic support. The crypto industry invested millions in the 2022 midterm elections to fight for regulatory certainty before the 2024 election cycle.
The advancement of this legislation demonstrates the expanding political power of the crypto industry in Washington while traditional financial organizations and consumer protection groups continue to resist it. Multiple Democratic senators withheld their support at first because they worried about a new stablecoin initiative linked to Trump. But recent amendments softened opposition.
If passed, the bill will become the initial major U.S. legal framework for digital dollar-pegged tokens which would enable broader institutional adoption and decrease systemic risk. Trump considers blockchain finance to be a fundamental component of economic modernization because he supports the platform during his presidential campaign.
The House now faces pressure to consider the Senate-approved bill for review. The approval of this bill would represent a significant achievement for digital asset regulation in the United States while establishing Washington’s policy direction for this rapidly changing industry.
