Senate Passes GENIUS Act, Paving Way for Regulated Digital Dollar Boom

In a pivotal moment for the cryptocurrency industry, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed the long-awaited GENIUS Act, marking the federal government’s first major move toward regulating U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins. The bipartisan legislation passed with a decisive 68-30 vote, sending a clear signal: stablecoins are entering America’s financial mainstream.

Short for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, the GENIUS legislation lays the foundation for a federally supervised digital dollar economy. It introduces strict oversight measures—such as full-reserve backing, mandatory audits, and anti-money laundering rules—while granting new powers to the U.S. Treasury to authorize private issuers, including banks, fintech companies, and even large retailers, to launch their own digital dollars.

“This is about protecting American consumers and securing the U.S. dollar’s global role in the digital era,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a lead sponsor of the bill.

Though the bill still faces hurdles in the GOP-controlled House, its passage in the Senate marks a major political and financial milestone for an industry that spent roughly $250 million this election cycle to support what many are calling the most crypto-aligned Congress in U.S. history.

Trump’s Crypto Empire Casts a Long Shadow

Much of that political influence circles back to President Donald Trump, whose digital finance footprint continues to grow. Trump’s financial disclosure last week revealed he raked in at least $57 million in 2024 from crypto-related ventures, primarily through token sales linked to World Liberty Financial. His portfolio includes nearly 16 billion WLFI governance tokens, a stake potentially worth close to $1 billion.

Beyond WLFI, the Trump family’s ventures span a broad crypto frontier—ranging from the controversial $TRUMP meme coin to a $2.5 billion bitcoin treasury, proposed ETFs under the Truth.Fi umbrella, and the newly unveiled American Bitcoin mining operation. According to Forbes, Trump’s crypto assets have pushed his net worth to an estimated $5.6 billion.

Critics, however, are raising alarms. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) blasted the bill’s passage, accusing Republicans of giving Trump “a green light to profit from public office through crypto influence.” Merkley unsuccessfully tried to insert an amendment barring presidents and executive officials from personal crypto ventures—an effort blocked on the Senate floor.

Competing Visions Ahead in the House

The GENIUS Act now moves to the House, where lawmakers are advancing a separate version known as the STABLE Act. While both proposals prohibit interest-bearing stablecoins aimed at consumers, they diverge on regulatory structure. The Senate’s bill consolidates control under the Treasury Department, while the House plan splits authority among the Fed, the Comptroller of the Currency, and other agencies—setting up a likely legislative clash.

Despite the bill’s final approval, the road to passage wasn’t smooth. The GENIUS Act initially failed to make it to the Senate floor, delayed by partisan squabbles and industry lobbying. “We thought starting with stablecoins would be the easy win,” admitted Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) at the recent Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. “We were wrong.”

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) echoed that frustration, noting how hard it was to bring 18 Senate Democrats across the aisle: “It’s been murder to get them there,” he said.

Stablecoins Surge as Wall Street Joins the Fray

Stablecoins—cryptocurrencies tied to real-world assets, mostly the U.S. dollar—have gained major traction as alternatives to traditional payment systems. Last year, $28 trillion worth of stablecoin transactions occurred, eclipsing even Visa and Mastercard combined, according to Deutsche Bank.

Private industry is quickly adapting. Shopify already enables USDC payments via Coinbase and Stripe. Bank of America is exploring its own stablecoin, while JPMorgan Chase has launched JPMD, a blockchain-based deposit token built on Coinbase’s Base network, but restricted to institutional clients. Unlike many public stablecoins, JPMD offers 24/7 settlement and interest payments—illustrating how legacy finance aims to capture stablecoin benefits without giving up control to crypto-native firms.

Still, the GENIUS Act imposes guardrails. Notably, it restricts non-financial tech giants from issuing stablecoins independently—unless they partner with licensed financial institutions. That clause is widely seen as a response to past initiatives like Facebook’s failed Diem project, which raised antitrust concerns in Congress.

What’s Next?

With projections from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggesting the U.S. stablecoin market could surpass $2 trillion in the next few years, the GENIUS Act may prove to be just the beginning of America’s digital finance transformation.

But the fight over who benefits—and who controls it—is far from over.