The Senate approved the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in a 51-23 vote on June 17, sending the measure to the House for consideration.
The vote followed a 68-30 cloture decision on June 11 that cut off debate and started the mandatory 30-hour countdown to the final roll call.
Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), the bill’s lead sponsor, called the vote “a big win for the United States.”
In a statement shared on social media, he said GENIUS “establishes the first ever pro-growth regulatory framework for payment stablecoins.”
He further added:
“[The bill] will cement US-dollar dominance, protect customers, increase demand for US Treasuries and ensure that innovation in the digital asset space is in the hands of the United States, not our adversaries.”
Hagerty noted that pegging stablecoins one-for-one to cash or short-term Treasuries combines the dollar’s stability with blockchain speed, enabling near-instant settlement for businesses and individuals and “ushering in a new generation in payment processing.”
He also projected that stablecoin issuers could become the world’s largest holders of Treasuries by 2030, bolstering fiscal resilience.
The GENIUS Act requires every payment stablecoin to hold reserves equal to the number of tokens in circulation, limited to short-dated US Treasuries or insured deposits, and bars issuers from paying yield.
Reserves must sit in accounts segregated from operating capital, and issuers must maintain Bank Secrecy Act compliance programs, perform customer due diligence checks, and report suspicious activity.
Entities with more than $10 billion in liabilities would need a federal charter; smaller issuers could operate under state regimes that meet federal standards, subject to joint examinations by federal regulators.
Additionally, the Treasury Department will be mandated to publish quarterly audit templates, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will be given limited enforcement powers in the spot market.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has argued that the reserve mandate could draw private demand toward Treasury bills, reduce borrowing costs, and introduce millions of users worldwide to dollar-denominated digital asset rails.
With Senate passage secured, the GENIUS Act now awaits scheduling in the House.
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