Senate stablecoin bill may return to vote after Trump-linked crypto dispute

The U.S. Senate’s effort to regulate stablecoin issuers could soon return to the floor, following a week of stalled progress tied to partisan concerns over President Donald Trump’s crypto connections. 

Lawmakers are close to finalizing updated language in the bill, which may be brought forward procedurally as early as Thursday.

The legislation — known as the GENIUS Act — aims to establish a federal framework for stablecoins.

A previous version passed the Senate Banking Committee with bipartisan support but failed to advance in a cloture vote last week when all Democrats and two Republicans opposed it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune later flipped his vote in a procedural move to keep the bill alive.

Trump’s dubious stablecoin ties

One sticking point for Democrats was Trump’s indirect ties to stablecoin issuer World Liberty Financial, linked to a deal involving Binance and Abu Dhabi’s MGX. However, the revised bill does not include language addressing this, according to CoinDesk reporting.  

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand acknowledged that while the bill includes general ethics measures, it is “not an ethics bill per se.”

Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), co-sponsor of the bill, urged lawmakers to focus on regulatory clarity rather than political distractions. “I don’t want the fact that President Trump’s name comes up… to distract us from the important goal,” she said at a Wednesday event.

The House is also advancing a separate stablecoin bill. If both chambers align, it could mark a major shift in how the U.S. approaches digital dollar regulation.