First cryptocurrency safeguard bill passes key vote: What to know about the Genius Act

The Senate voted on Monday to push forward with first of its kind legislation to regulate some cryptocurrencies.

The legislation received some pushback from Democrats in the last few weeks amid President Donald Trump’s crypto business initiatives, but the bill in the end received the support of 16 Democrats in the upper chamber, including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Sen. Adam Schiff, ABC News noted.

The measure, backed by the crypto industry, puts in place regulations for stablecoins, a kind of cryptocurrency connected to the value of another asset, such as the U.S. dollar or gold.

Supporters hailed the legislation as a way to protect consumers and set standards for the industry, allowing crypto coins to become a more widely accepted tool for digital payments and other financial transactions.

Those critical of the bill argued that it doesn’t address concerns about possible conflicts of interest, such as those exhibited by the president, and that there’s a risk that it puts consumers and the economy at risk because the regulations aren’t strong enough.

Christian Catalini, the founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab, supports the measure. He told ABC News that the legislation “sets the stage for these assets to go mainstream.”

Here’s what you need to know about the GENIUS Act:

The GENIUS Act governs how stablecoins can be issued and exchanged. Stablecoins are intended to be less volatile than other cryptocurrencies, which can swing wildly in value and therefore may be challenging to use to buy or sell something.

The legislation establishes regulations for issuers of stablecoins, such as a mandate that companies have a reserve of assets underlying the coin in an attempt to protect customers who may otherwise be unable to cash out their cryptocurrency if there’s a widespread offloading of a cryptocurrency.

The bill would also require issuers to give coin holders repayment priority if a company goes bust. The legislation mandates that issuers adhere to some anti-money laundering rules and sanctions targeting terrorism.

Backers of the legislation say that it puts forward safeguards for consumers and allows for conventional financial companies to enter the system and grow the market for digital currencies.

Catalini told ABC News that the new legislation “opens the floodgates.”

“You’ll see entry by many issuers. Consumers will all have more choices. This will bring more competition and innovation in payments,” he added.

Catalini said that the new rules remove the pressure from consumers to distinguish between good and bad actors in the sector and instead make space for competition based on the quality of the products put forward by the firms entering the stablecoin sphere.

“It becomes a game of who can deliver better use-cases and features to consumers and businesses the fastest,” he added.

Critics, meanwhile, argue that the bill is a weak set of rules, friendly to the industry, that fail to properly protect consumers and guard against the illegal trading of stablecoins.

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren took to the Senate floor on Monday to say that “While a strong stablecoin bill is the best possible outcome, this weak bill is worse than no bill at all.”

Critics argue that the legislation doesn’t properly deal with the concerns regarding conflicts of interest raised by Trump’s entry into the stablecoin market.

The Trump-backed crypto company World Liberty Financial issued a stablecoin in March. Earlier this month, an investment firm based in Abu Dhabi used the coin to invest $2 billion in Binance, a crypto exchange. It meant that Trump’s firm could possibly profit from the agreement. The president has rejected any notion of wrongdoing.

However, the bill includes a condition that would “prohibit any member of Congress or senior executive branch official from issuing a payment stablecoin product during their time in public service.”

Warren still argued that the bill doesn’t take on concerns about Trump’s business.

“This bill provides even more opportunities to reward buyers of Trump’s coins with favors like tariff exemptions, pardons, and government appointments,” she said.