On June 11th, the US Senate voted 68 in favor and 30 against to terminate the debate on the “GENIUS Bill” for Stablecoin Innovation Guidance and Establishment in the United States. This voting result has ended the possibility of filibutism and brought the bill closer to a final full-house vote that requires a simple majority.
Senate Majority Leader John Thun controls the Senate’s schedule. Immediately after the voting ended, he initiated a 30-hour post-debate timer. According to Alex Thorne, the research director of Gallex, lawmakers can now debate the alternative amendment negotiated by Senator Bill Hagerty and then vote on the amendment and the entire bill. This process is likely to end on June 16 or 17.
Hagerty’s alternative amendment lifted the proposed ban on physical redemptions and clarified the regulatory authority for non-bank issuers. These are the change demands made by Democratic negotiators after the bill’s first attempt to end the debate failed in May. The revised text retains strict requirements for reserves, disclosures and reviews.
The Innovation Crypto Committee and the Decentralized Finance Education Fund praised the vote in their respective statements, saying that the majority of votes demonstrated broad support for clear federal rules and urged senators to maintain this momentum in the upcoming amendment and the passing of the vote.
The bill requires that each payment stablecoin must hold high-quality and highly liquid assets equal to the value of the circulating token, mainly short-term US Treasury bonds or insured deposits. It prohibits issuers from providing returns on stablecoins themselves and requires that reserves be completely isolated from working capital. The issuer must implement a compliance plan under the Bank Secrecy Act, conduct customer due diligence, and submit reports on suspicious activities. Entities with debts exceeding 10 billion US dollars need to obtain federal permission. Meanwhile, smaller issuers can operate under state regimes that meet the minimum federal standards, but they need to undergo joint review by federal and state regulatory agencies. The legislation also instructs the Ministry of Finance to issue a quarterly reserve audit template and grants the Commodity Futures Trading Commission limited enforcement powers against spot market manipulation.
If the Senate passes the Hagerty Amendment and then the bill, the House of Representatives can take action on the text without convening a consultative committee, thereby accelerating the enactment of the bill. Within 30 hours after the end of the debate, only the relevant amendments are in line with the procedure, unless 60 senators agree to abandon this rule, and the leadership expects few such votes.
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