After the May 8 vote failed, Democrats came back to the table. With new concessions in hand, will enough flip to send the GENIUS Act forward?
Congress is getting a redo on its first piece of crypto legislation
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Posted May 19, 2025 at 4:15 pm EST.
After failing in a 48-49 procedural vote earlier this month, the GENIUS Act — a bill that would establish federal oversight of payment stablecoins — is getting a second chance today.
The legislation returns to the Senate floor for another cloture vote at 5:30 p.m. ET following a week of bipartisan negotiations and a revised draft released over the weekend.
Does that mean passage is likely? Actually, even though Democrats obtained several concessions, it’s a toss-up.
The May 8 vote failed largely along party lines. Every Democrat voted against the bill, and they were joined by two Republicans, Sens. Josh Hawley (MO) and Rand Paul (KY). Many Democrats cited concerns over consumer protections and President Trump’s lucrative growing ties to the crypto industry.
But over the past week, Democratic senators rejoined the negotiations and obtained a series of policy concessions aimed at addressing those issues.
Key negotiators included:
- Republicans: Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Tim Scott (R-SC)
- Democrats: Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Mark Warner (D-VA)
Sen. Lummis, chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets, exclusively told Unchained, “Negotiations have certainly not been easy, but I am grateful to Leader Thune, Chairman Scott, and Senators Hagerty and Gillibrand for their continued commitment to getting the GENIUS Act across the finish line.” Lummis added, “I am hopeful we can deliver this bipartisan framework to President Trump’s desk very soon.”
Sen. Warner, viewed as a bellwether among Democrats, is now backing the bill. Warner said in an online statement, “The stablecoin market has reached nearly $250 billion and the U.S. can’t afford to keep standing on the sidelines.” While acknowledging lingering concerns about the Trump family’s use of crypto technologies to evade oversight, Warner added that, “If American lawmakers don’t shape this space, others will—and not in ways that serve our democratic values.”
The Vote Math
Sixty votes are needed to invoke cloture. Republicans Paul Hawley are expected to once again vote no, with Hawley specifically citing the Big Tech concerns that prompted his first no vote. Most other Republicans are considered likely yes votes, putting pressure on Democrats to supply at least nine votes.
Gillibrand and Warner are confirmed yes votes, with Alsobrooks and Gallego seen as probable yes votes because of their participation in the negotiations. A source familiar with the negotiations also says that Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) are Democratic senators likely to vote yes this time. It is worth noting that these are the other Democratic senators who had expressed concerns about the prior bill before the failed cloture vote.
Democrats Boast of Concessions in Stablecoin Negotiations
Democratic negotiators outlined several key concessions in a Thursday memo to colleagues, aiming to make the bill more palatable by emphasizing strengthened consumer protections, clear limits on Big Tech involvement, and an explicit ban on yield-bearing stablecoins from both domestic and foreign issuers.
- Preservation of consumer protection laws, ensuring federal and state rules remain enforceable
- Limits on Big Tech, barring firms like Meta or Google from issuing stablecoins unless they meet strict systemic risk and data privacy requirements
- Stricter compliance for foreign issuers, requiring both regulatory and technical adherence
- Prohibition of misleading terms, including “FDIC-insured” or “U.S. Government” in stablecoin branding
- Ban on yield-bearing stablecoins, even for foreign entities, to prevent unregulated financial products
- Expanded enforcement powers, allowing the Treasury Department to suspend licenses for reckless conduct
- Bankruptcy protections for stablecoin holders
- National security and AML mandates, including new FinCEN oversight of DeFi tools
Why the odds of passage are still unclear: The big question is whether enough Democrats will follow the bill negotiators to deliver nine yes votes, or whether Hawley may decide he is comfortable with the new guardrails against Big Tech. The vote is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET.
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