Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) introduced a stablecoin oversight bill on Tuesday, January 10, 2024, marking the beginning of the new Congress's crypto push. The bill, called the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation in U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, aims to establish a regulatory framework for issuing dollar-denominated tokens.
The legislation is backed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott and the head of its digital assets subcommittee, Cynthia Lummis. It proposes the Federal Reserve as the watchdog for large bank issuers and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as the regulator for nonbank issuers exceeding $10 billion. Smaller issuers would be overseen by state regulators, with larger firms having the option to seek waivers.
The bill's focus on state regulators is a departure from previous efforts, which faced significant opposition due to disagreements on regulatory oversight. The distinction between federal and state regulators was a major sticking point in previous attempts to reach a bipartisan agreement on stablecoin legislation. It remains uncertain whether Hagerty's bill, which Senator Lummis has pledged to push for presidential approval, will garner Democrat support given its lighter regulatory approach.
The House of Representatives passed a stablecoin oversight bill in the previous session, but it faced resistance in the Senate. Hagerty's new bill is intended to address these concerns and secure bipartisan support. The bill's introduction comes as President Trump's crypto czar, David Sacks, is scheduled to hold a press conference with congressional leaders later on Tuesday to outline their crypto strategy, where the stablecoin effort is expected to be discussed.