Lawmakers plan to move first on stablecoins as they push new crypto legislation following Trump win
02/05/2025 05:08
Republican lawmakers said Tuesday they are moving full-tilt to help President Donald Trump fulfill what the crypto world most unanimously wants from the new administration: clear regulation for the digital asset industry.
Republican lawmakers said Tuesday they are moving full-tilt to help President Donald Trump fulfill what crypto world most unanimously wants from the new administration: clear regulation for the digital asset industry.
"We have a bicameral project for both a stablecoins bill and a regulatory framework that will bring clarity to digital assets in United States," House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (R-Ark.) told reporters during a press conference where they were joined by Trump's AI and crypto czar David Sacks.
Hill spoke alongside Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-Ark.) as well as House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-P.A.).
Lawmakers are set to move first with a bill on stablecoins and then tackle a more comprehensive bill on market structure for crypto.
Earlier Tuesday Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Scott introduced the U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act — a bill designed to set a clearer framework for the use of stablecoins as payments.
"My goal is to be as aggressive as possible, to achieve an objective of having bills through the Senate in a hundred days," Scott told reporters.
Scott said that Republicans have been working with Democrats already and that the bill is moving quickly. He is "pleasantly surprised" that members from both parties on the committee as well as Senator GIllibrand are "anxious to have a win in this digital space."
Last year while campaigning, President Trump said he would make the US the "crypto capital of the planet." He also made a number of specific promises.
As part of the crypto-focused executive order the President signed in January, he ordered for the formation of a presidential group on digital assets led by Sacks.
A core aim of the new working group is to coordinate clearer regulation for the sector.
Some of Trump’s promises to the crypto world, like prohibiting the US government from creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC), have been easy to deliver.
Other promises and regulatory developments for the crypto world might take more time. Major questions still remain around whether the Trump administration will deliver a "national digital asset stockpile," which Sacks' group has also been directed to evaluate.
"We're still in the very early stages of this, but that's one of the first things we're going to look at is the feasibility of a bitcoin reserve," Sacks said, responding to a question from Yahoo Finance on Tuesday.
In January, the Securities and Exchange Commission formed a new crypto task force led by SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce.
In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Pierce asked that investors “be patient,” cautioning against expectations for quick improvements.
“It took us a long time to get into this mess, and it is going to take us some time to get out of it,” Pierce said in a statement.
David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance.
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