Online Reporter
The US Senate passed stablecoin legislation setting up regulatory rules for cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar, in a landmark win for the ascendant crypto industry and President Donald Trump.
The 68-30 vote on Tuesday evening marked a rare moment of bipartisanship in the deeply divided Senate, despite Republicans blocking Democratic efforts to bar Trump from profiting from his many crypto ventures while in office.
A Trump-affiliated stablecoin already has a US$2 billion market value.
The House has been pursuing its own legislation, including a more sweeping measure to regulate the broader crypto market.
House lawmakers must now decide whether to take up the Senate bill or negotiate a compromise measure.
The stablecoin vote, years in the making, is the crypto industry’s most tangible return yet on the hundreds of millions of dollars it poured into electing a crypto-friendly Congress.
Crypto titans who flooded money into last year’s election with the best-funded alliance of corporate political action committees in US history have similar plans for the 2026 midterm elections.
Dollar-pegged stablecoins would have to hold dollar-for-dollar reserves in short-term government debt or similar products overseen by state or federal regulators.
Industry backers hope the legislation will turn stablecoins into a mainstream form of payment.
Retailers had signed on to the bill with the idea that they can provide a cheaper, faster way to process transactions than traditional banking products like credit cards and checks.
Banks, especially smaller ones, have warned about a potential drain on deposits and reduced access to credit.
Larger banks are considering issuing their own stablecoins, which generate profits from interest on the reserves. — Bloomberg
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