In a 68-30 vote, the US Senate chose to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, more than a month after it was introduced.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Wednesday, Majority Leader John Thune urged members of Congress to support the bill, echoing many of US President Donald Trump’s talking points on digital assets, including that the legislation would help make the US the “crypto capital of the world.”
A majority of senators, including several Democrats, voted to invoke cloture for the bill, setting it up for debate and a full floor vote before potentially sending it to the House of Representatives for further consideration.
“We want to bring cryptocurrency into the mainstream, and the GENIUS Act will help us do that,” said Thune.
Thune said there was “more work to be done” for Congress in regard to digital assets, referring to a separate market structure bill being considered in the House. On Tuesday, two House committees voted to advance the bill, called the CLARITY Act, potentially setting it up for a full floor vote soon.
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Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke from the Senate floor, saying there were “core problems” with the GENIUS Act that the chamber had failed to address by not voting on certain bipartisan amendments. She also reiterated concerns from many Democrats about Trump’s ties to his family-backed crypto platform World Liberty Financial, and rewarding holders of his memecoin with dinner and access to the president.
“Through his crypto business, Trump has created an efficient means to trade presidential favors like tariff exemptions, pardons, and government appointments for hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of dollars from foreign governments, from billionaires, and from large corporations,” said Warren. “By passing the GENIUS Act, the Senate is not only about to bless this corruption, but to actively facilitate its expansion.”
“The GENIUS Act is riddled with loopholes and contains weak safeguards for consumers, national security, and financial stability.”
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Though many Democrats voted to invoke cloture, at the time of publication, some were continuing to request that Republicans consider amending the GENIUS Act. It’s unclear whether the bill will have enough support to pass the chamber, where Republicans hold a slim majority.
After the first cloture vote failure in May, Trump’s “AI and crypto czar,” David Sacks, said the White House expected the GENIUS Act to pass in the Senate with bipartisan support. The companion bill to regulate stablecoins in the House, the STABLE Act, was still under consideration by the Financial Services Committee as of May.
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