WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a landmark cryptocurrency bill Tuesday in a big win for Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, nicknamed the “Crypto Queen” for her yearslong work on digital assets legislation.
“The time for hesitation has passed. The time for leadership is now,” Lummis said on the floor about an hour ahead of the 68-30 vote on the GENIUS Act. It now goes to the House after a bumpy ride to get across the Senate’s finish line.
The bill would regulate a category of cryptocurrency called stablecoins, which are fixed to government currencies like the U.S. dollar. It is the first major cryptocurrency bill of any kind to ever pass the Senate.
“This legislation … protects the U.S. dollar’s role as the world reserve currency by ensuring that dollar-backed stablecoins remain strong and reliable,” Lummis, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee’s subcommittee on digital assets, said on the floor Tuesday.
Lummis called the GENIUS Act “a first step toward modernizing the American payment system, and integrating digital assets into the U.S. economy in a responsible way.”
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Walmart, Amazon and other big merchants are exploring the issuance of their own stablecoins. The WSJ reported in May that the nation’s largest banks might do the same in order to stave off competition from stablecoins.
Lummis was a co-sponsor of the GENIUS Act and a leading proponent of it. She and her staff worked extensively on the measure with Democrats and Republicans, including the lead sponsor, U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tennessee.
“Put simply, stablecoins are a paradigm-shifting element that can bring our payment system into the 21st century,” Hagerty said Tuesday.
Lummis and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, spearheaded stablecoin legislation in the 2023-2024 term of Congress, but that bill died in committee. Similarly, in the 2021-2022 term, Hagerty sponsored stablecoin legislation that went nowhere.
Critics: Bill Too Weak
Over the past several weeks, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and others have called the GENIUS Act too weak.
They said the GENIUS Act, if enacted into law, would put the entire financial system at risk, possibly triggering a taxpayer bailout. They said the bill is tilted too much in favor of the stablecoin industry, with inadequate regulatory safeguards.
Warren, Reed and other Democrats have also complained the bill does nothing to stop President Donald Trump’s growing involvement in the crypto realm — involvement those Democrats see as self-serving or outright corrupt.
In March, a Trump-affiliated company called World Liberty Financial issued a stablecoin called USD1. Trump-related ventures also include memecoins and bitcoin.
Critics also say the bill does not adequately guard against money laundering by drug cartels, terrorists and others.
Lummis, though, thanked Trump on Tuesday for supporting crypto legislation. She said the bill does have strong consumer safeguards, tools to fight money laundering and language to ensure “robust oversight when necessary.”
Lummis: Wyoming Set Example
Lummis in her floor remarks Tuesday referred to Wyoming state-level policies welcoming crypto.
“Since 2017, Wyoming has been on the forefront of digital asset policy, long before it was popular or politically expedient,” she said. “In Wyoming, we recognized early on what the rest of the country is beginning to understand: that digital assets are a force for good, and that you can have both responsible innovation and consumer protection side by side.”
Lummis said the GENIUS Act would help solidify the stablecoin industry in the United States.
“The sobering reality is that … other nations have been hard at work offering their own framework for stablecoins and encouraging the digital asset industry to call their respective countries home,” she said.“America’s role as the global financial services leader is a privilege, not a right, and we must innovate to compete with other nations that want to attract American businesses.
“The GENIUS Act protects the dual banking system and gives stablecoin issuers a real choice between state and federal charters, preserving the innovative spirit that has also made states like Wyoming leaders in this space, while also ensuring we have robust oversight when necessary.”
Bill History
This year’s version of the GENIUS Act was introduced in February and approved by the Senate Banking Committee in March on an 18-6 vote with support from five Democrats.
But it was blocked by Senate Democrats on May 8, just a couple days after Warren began shining a light on Trump’s growing involvement in crypto and saying the GENIUS Act should stop the president from profiting off of stablecoins.
The Senate then cast a preliminary vote for the bill on May 19 with a promise from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, that amendments would be considered on the floor when the bill came back for final passage.
Eighty-two amendments were filed as of June 6, and the number soared to 128 by last week. Some amendments pertained to stablecoins and some had nothing to do with crypto at all. One took aim at Trump's involvement in the stablecoin space.
Thune then outraged some Democrats by refusing to allow floor consideration of any of the amendments. Thune did not say which amendments, if any, were troubling him.
But many Democrats believed strongly enough in the core bill that they were persuaded to vote for it Tuesday. The bill has undergone numerous revisions behind the scenes.
The 68-30 tally Tuesday means two senators did not vote, and it was not immediately clear which ones. The Senate’s website did not immediately post the roll call outcome, but clearly a significant number of Democrats voted for the bill, as the GOP holds 53 seats in the chamber.
The Republicans also hold the House, where the bill goes next. Lummis, meanwhile, now turns her attention to other Senate crypto bills.
She is the lead sponsor of the BITCOIN Act, which calls for the U.S. government to stockpile Bitcoin as a strategic reserve. And she is co-drafting another bill on digital assets as a companion to the CLARITY Act in the House.
Sean Barry can be reached at sean@cowboystatedaily.com.
