Progressive Groups Marshal Opposition To Crypto Bill

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Huff Post

May 19, 2025, 09:49 AM EDT


WASHINGTON — Progressive groups are rallying opposition to an industry-backed crypto bill on the verge of passing the Senate thanks to Democratic support. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, had been on a glide path toward Senate passage earlier this month until the Democrats supporting it balked because of President Donald Trump’s brazen use of crypto to enrich his family. After a failed vote, the GENIUS Act’s backers regrouped and adjusted the text, and now the Senate is poised to pass the bill this week, with a procedural vote as soon as Monday evening.

Progressive groups, including Indivisible and Americans for Financial Reform, have been circulating petitions in opposition to the bill, and a new organization called Democracy Defenders Action, led by former White House counsel Norm Eisen, is warning senators to vote no. “As drafted, the GENIUS Act would enact a regulatory framework for the issuance and regulation of stablecoins,” Eisen and DDA director Virginia Canter wrote in a Friday letter obtained by HuffPost. “Yet, it does not address President Trump’s massive conflicts of interest arising from stablecoins issued by a company in which he and his family have a large financial stake.”

Stablecoins are a type of digital asset with a fixed value, making them more useful for transactions than memecoins or Bitcoin. The GENIUS Act would establish regulations governing what sorts of reserves stablecoin issuers must hold to prevent panics like the one that led to the collapse of the stablecoin Terra in 2022.

But the bill’s significance extends beyond stablecoins. Both the measure’s backers in the crypto industry and its haters elsewhere see it as a first step toward entrenching crypto in the U.S. financial system and rewarding the industry’s massive investments in political campaigns. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has led opposition in the Senate, saying a vote for the bill is a vote for Trump’s corrupt sale of his office.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/genius-act-senate-vote-elizabeth-warren_n_682b2ee3e4b025b439c2c436