Stablecoin bill clears major hurdle

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On Monday evening, the U.S. Senate passed a cloture vote to proceed with the GENIUS Act: a piece of legislation that sets clear regulations for stablecoins. Cloture is simply a Senate procedure to end debate on a motion. While the bill hasn’t technically passed, it’s “as good as passed”, according to Mesh’s Head of Legal, Steve Aquino.

What does this mean for the industry?

The vote comes less than a week after Mesh co-founder and COO, Adam Israel, travelled to Washington to lobby for clear crypto legislation alongside advocacy group Stand With Crypto.
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“Legislative clarity is critical,” he said in a LinkedIn post. “Without it, we risk stifling growth, deterring investment, and undermining market security.”
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Now that there’s a path forward for legislative clarity, the U.S. could soon finally have a robust legal framework for stablecoin issuance. This would include:

• Clear rules for obtaining a license for issuance
• Reserve requirements for issuers
• Thresholds for when certain regulatory frameworks kick in (e.g. Federal Reserve requirements)

How big a deal is this?

Mesh co-founder and CEO, Bam Azizi, called Monday’s vote a “huge victory” for crypto. “This is arguably an even more important moment for the industry than the Bitcoin ETF,” he said.
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Clearer stablecoin rules in the U.S. have been on the industry’s wishlist for years (the top two stablecoins, USDC and USDT, account for roughly 94% of the market). It’s therefore expected that passage of the GENIUS Act will lead to further institutional adoption and use of stablecoins in global payments. Even Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a vocal critic of the bill, said that its passage will likely “turbocharge” the stablecoin market.

What’s next?

Once the Senate passes the bill, it will go to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Last month the House Financial Services Committee advanced its own stablecoin bill (the STABLE Act), so the two bills will need to be reconciled before heading to the Oval Office for President Trump’s signature.

Currently there’s no clear timeframe for when this will happen.

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