How GENIUS ACT squeaked through despite Trumps impotent crypto council
The stablecoin bill passed a key procedural vote, finally, but it was a heavy lift engineered in the 11th hour Monday night by the bill’s sponsor, Tennessee GOP Sen.Bill Hagerty.He had to remind crypto-friendly Democrats what was at stake – and to ignore the politicization of the legislation by the crypto-hating Massachusetts Sen.
Elizabeth Warren, On The Money has learned.First the good news: The bill, known as the GENIUS Act, is the first major piece of crypto legislation ever, and hopefully not the last.It helps clear a major hurdle for the $3.5 trillion crypto industry by setting clear rules for the creation of stablecoins, popular digital assets, backed up by real assets like US Treasuries, as opposed to the hot air of most crypto.
The Senate will be debating amendments etc., in the coming days, before an all-but certain passage before it heads to the GOP controlled House and then, if all goes according to plan, President Trump’s desk to sign into law.If all that happens (again, it’s likely given what just went down, but with this crew who knows?), there will be better disclosures of the hard assets, better ways to transact the stablecoins, and rules for keeping them in reserve, which according to sources, will be more efficient because it prevents the big banks from profiting off of one of the traditional banking system’s anachronisms.They won’t be able to profit from the “float” because transactions can take place seamlessly, one of the benefits of digital coins and its underlying blockchain technology.More good news: On The Money has learned that Hagerty has emerged as crypto’s most effective, and much-needed spokesman on Capitol Hill.
Sources in the digital coin business tell me that first, he fought skepticism in his own party (Sens.Rand Paul and Josh Hawley were no votes), and managed to twist enough arms to get the bill to a vote before the Senate turned to passage of President Trump’s “big, beautiful budget” early Thursday mo...