According to reports citing Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the U.S. Senate is preparing to take up stablecoin legislation before the Memorial Day recess on May 26.
In an April 29 politico report during a closed-door session with Republican senators, Thune reportedly confirmed that the chamber would prioritize discussions on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in the coming weeks.
Introduced in February by Senator Bill Hagerty, the GENIUS Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee in March. The bill aims to restrict the issuance of payment stablecoins to entities designated as “permitted payment stablecoin issuers.” A companion proposal, known as the STABLE Act (Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy), is already under consideration in the House of Representatives, which, like the Senate, is under Republican control.
Although Thune avoided any mention of cryptocurrency legislation in his public comments about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, the administration has taken significant steps on the digital assets front. One of Trump’s early executive orders, signed on January 23, called for the creation of a national crypto stockpile and established a working group to draft a regulatory framework for stablecoins. These moves have coincided with a growing push by Republican lawmakers to formalize crypto oversight through the STABLE and GENIUS bills.
However, controversy is mounting over Trump’s connections to the crypto sector. Critics have raised red flags over the launch of the USD1 stablecoin by World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm reportedly backed by members of the Trump family. Several Democratic lawmakers argue that the president’s links to the company could pose an “extraordinary conflict of interest,” especially as Congress debates regulations that may directly impact the firm’s operations and the broader stablecoin ecosystem.
The legislative showdown comes at a time when the intersection of politics, policy, and crypto is under heightened scrutiny, with both economic and ethical implications for the future of U.S. digital currency regulation.
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