The Senate Banking Committee is set to vote on a Republican-led stablecoin framework bill on March 13, following updates made after consultation with Democrats.
Stablecoin Bill Updates
Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, announced that he introduced an updated version of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which will be voted on by the Senate Banking Committee on March 13. He added that the updated bill included bipartisan consultations. The bill is co-sponsored by Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Tim Scott, who is also the chair of the Banking Committee, along with Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Angela Alsobrooks.
Key Features of the New Bill
The updated GENIUS Act version includes significant improvements in several key provisions such as consumer protections, authorized stablecoin issuers, risk mitigation, state pathways, insolvency, transparency, and more. Initially introduced by Hagerty in early February, the bill aims to bring issuers of US dollar stablecoins with market caps over $10 billion — primarily Tether's USDT and Circle’s USDC — under Federal Reserve regulations. Issuers with market caps under $10 billion could opt into state-level regulation.
Potential Implications and Next Steps
Web3 learning app EasyA co-founder Dom Kwok mentioned that the latest version of the GENIUS Act gives US-issued stablecoins a competitive advantage. He added that the bill now holds foreign stablecoin issuers to extra high standards, particularly in areas such as reserve and liquidity requirements, money laundering checks, and sanctions checks. Jeremy Hogan, a crypto lawyer, also concluded that the bill's requirements, especially around reserves and Anti-Money Laundering checks, align well for Circle's USDC and Ripple Labs' Ripple USD (RLUSD). The bill still requires further approval. After the Senate Banking Committee vote, it moves to a full Senate floor vote and then to the House. If the House leaves the bill unchanged, it will go to the President for signing.
The stablecoin bill still has a long way to go before becoming law. It must pass votes in both the Senate and the House, before being sent to the US President.
