US senate Democrats cross the aisle to help Republicans pass crypto bill

The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would regulate a form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins, the first of what the industry hopes will be a wave of bills to bolster its legitimacy and reassure consumers.

The fast-moving legislation, which passed by a 68-30 vote and will be sent to the House for potential revisions, comes on the heels of a 2024 campaign cycle in which the crypto industry ranked among the top political spenders in the country, underscoring its growing influence in Washington and beyond.

The bill leaves unresolved concerns over presidential conflicts of interest – an issue that remains a source of tension within the Democratic caucus.

Eighteen Democratic senators crossed the aisle to vote for the legislation on Tuesday, siding with the Republican majority in the 53-47 Senate. Republican senators Josh Hawley and Rand Paul were the only members of their party to oppose the measure.

Known as the GENIUS Act, the bill would establish guardrails and consumer protections for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar. The acronym stands for “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins”

The bill only needed a simple majority vote to pass Tuesday, after it had already cleared its biggest procedural hurdle last week in a 68-30 vote, with 18 Democrats siding with Republicans. But the bill has faced more resistance than initially expected.

It was the second major bipartisan bill to advance through the Senate this year, following the Laken Riley Act on immigration enforcement in January. Still, most Democrats opposed the bill. They raised concerns that the measure does little to address Donald Trump’s personal financial interests in the crypto space.

“We weren’t able to include certainly everything we would have wanted, but it was a good bipartisan effort,” said Angela Alsobrooks, a Democratic senator from Maryland, on Monday. Alsobrooks, a co-sponsor of the bill, added, “This is an unregulated area that will now be regulated.”

The stablecoin legislation still faces several hurdles before reaching the president’s desk. It must clear the narrowly held Republican majority in the House, where lawmakers may try to attach a broader market structure bill – sweeping legislation that could make a second passage through the Senate more difficult. Trump has said he wants stablecoin legislation on his desk before Congress breaks for its August recess, now just under 50 days away.

Bill Hagerty, the bill’s sponsor and a Republican senator from Tennessee, said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote: “With this bill, the United States is a step closer to being a global leader in crypto.”

A provision in the bill bans members of Congress and their families from profiting off stablecoins. That prohibition does not extend to the president and his family, even as Trump builds a crypto empire from the White House.

“Passing the GENIUS Act without strong anti-corruption measures stamps a congressional seal of approval on President Trump selling access to the government for personal profit,” said Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator from Oregon, in a statement after the bill’s passage.

Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, has been among the most outspoken as the ranking member on the Senate banking committee, warning that the bill creates a “super highway” for Trump corruption. She has also warned that the bill would allow major technology companies, such as Amazon and Meta, to launch their own stablecoins.

Last month, the Republican president hosted a private dinner at his golf club in Virginia with top investors in a Trump-branded meme coin. His family holds a significant stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto project that launched its own stablecoin, USD1.

Trump reported earning $57.35m from token sales at World Liberty Financial in 2024, according to a public financial disclosure released Friday. A meme coin linked to him has generated an estimated $320m in fees, though the earnings are split among multiple investors.

Among the Democrats who backed the bill was Elissa Slotkin, a first-term senator who received $10m in support from a crypto political action committee during her Michigan race last year. Slotkin acknowledged the bill “wasn’t perfect” but called it a “good-faith, bipartisan start” to regulating stablecoins.

The administration is broadly supportive of crypto’s growth and its integration into the economy. Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, urged the Senate to pass the bill, saying it could help stablecoins “grow into a $3.7tn market by the end of the decade”.