Major Victory for the Crypto Arena as Senate Passes Stablecoin Bill
On Tuesday 17th June 2025, the United States Senate passed a bill (AKA The Genius Act) to create a regulatory framework for “Stablecoins”* in a defining moment for digital currencies in the crypto industry. The bill passed the Senate by a majority of 68 – 30 with a number of democrats joining most Republicans ensuring the bill was passed by a significant majority. The bill will now sit before a Republican controlled House of Representatives which will vote on its version of the bill before finally landing on the desk of President Donald Trump.
*Stablecoins – are a type of cryptocurrency designed to minimize price volatility by pegging their value to a stable asset such as a fiat currency which in this case is the US Dollar. Unlike other cryptocurrencies which historically and today can fluctuate wildly in price, stablecoins doctrine is to maintain a relatively stable value making them suitable for everyday transactions and a storage of wealth.
Stablecoins that are pegged to the dollar will have to hold dollar-for-dollar reserves in either cash, short-term US government debt (treasuries) or similar products that are easily convertible to cash, which shall be overseen by federal or state regulators, The crypto industry as a whole has waited years for yesterday’s vote, have literally spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect a Congress that is crypto friendly, and the industry is posed to do more of the same in the 2026 mid-term elections.
Those in the stablecoin arena are hopeful that the recent legislation will ensure stablecoins sooner or later become a mainstream form of payment. Indeed, retailers have backed this bill because it is felt that stablecoins will provide a faster and cheaper way to process transactions as opposed to traditional banking products such as credit cards. However, in the banking world, the smaller banks have issued warnings that deposits may be drained plus a reduction in access to credit. Meanwhile larger banks are mulling over whether they should issue their own stablecoins will generate profits from reserves.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat and ranking member on Senate Banking) and a number of her colleagues argue that the bill does not go far enough to protect consumers in the event that issuers of stablecoin fail. They contend that in the event of a failure customers could well lose their money which could fuel demands for a bailout by the taxpayer, and Senator Warren went on to say the bill would “supercharge the value of Donald Trump’s corruption.
Elsewhere in the crypto world declines in cryptocurrencies were led by Solana and Ether falling by 7% and 8% respectively, while Cardano had fallen by 8.5% (all coins had rebounded slightly by C.O.B. on Monday) all reflecting growing concern over the escalating conflict in the Middle East. The sell-off in crypto appeared to be a warning to Bitcoin holders that the cryptocurrency is a haven from turmoil as it sank along with other coins when Israel launched airstrikes against Iran at the end of last week.
