American legislation which would establish the regulation of Stablecoin has failed to get closer to reality Thursday while a democratic resistance rush prevented the bill from going to a phase of debate, which would have been the path to a possible vote on adoption.
The cryptographic industry has watched the Senate closely, where the fate of its legislative battle for a long time is at stake this year. The first of the two main bills on digital assets – this to regulate stablecoins such as the USDC of Circle and the USDT of Tether – met a road dam in Congress, although it easily obtained bipartite approval during a previous vote from the Banking Committee in the Senate.
A technical but vital vote to advance the legislation in the days of debate on the ground next week, failed 48-49. Under the rules of the Senate, 60 votes were necessary to go to a maximum period of 30 hours of debate on the ground. Senators Josh Hawley and Rand Paul have broken the ranks with their republican colleagues to vote against the progress of the legislation. The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, also overthrew his vote at the end of the votes series in a procedural decision to bring the legislation back to a later date.
The threshold of 60 votes to reach the next step is the largest lever point for criticisms of the current legislative language. Once a bill advances, a simple majority in the Senate can adopt it, which means that the Republicans could theoretically do it by themselves if they bring together all their members.
Some Democrats who had already spoken in favor of the effort have turned against this in recent days, claiming that the stablecoin regime needed more guarantees against illicit behavior, in particular distinguishing the cryptographic commercial ties of President Donald Trump as a conflict of potential interest which has been reported by many of them as corruption.
Senator Ruben Gallego, who received $ 10 million in support from the crypto political action committees in the 2024 elections, was among them, and he said to the Senate before the vote, “I think there is a path for us to do this, to make a good language, made a bipartisan victory for this country.” But he said the hard work and the “good faith” which was in the bill so far.
“The reason you hear a hesitation: the legislation of this scope and this importance cannot really be precipitated, and we need time,” he said, adding that he is not trying to close the process. “We want to bring this economy and this innovation to the United States.”
Gallego asked the Republicans to agree to keep the vote until at least on Monday to give legislators to “educate” the opponents of the bill on the legislative text – who had not been finalized when the vote began.
Senator Mark Warner, a democrat in Virginia, has echoed what the debate can still occur next week, noting that “stablecoins are undeniably part of the future of finance”, but he argued that “the text was not yet finished” and must provide the Americans more protections.
The Republicans, whose head of the majority, John Thune, had encouraged the Senate to continue towards an open debate, where changes could still be made.
“We have to seize the reins and ensure that all Americans are able to take charge of their financial future,” said Senator Cynthia Lummis, the Wyoming Republican who directs a crypto subcommittee in the Senate. Before the vote, she said that the senators’ staff “worked for days – days – to bring this field bill” and have already taken many democrat amendments.
“This is a bipartite bill and had a bipartite process from the start,” said Thune in the remarks after the vote in which he said that the Democrats refused to start the debate to which the Senate built. “The Democrats have been adapted to each stage of the path,” he added, noting that this is now the sixth version of the legislation.
“I just don’t understand,” he said. The plan is now to “bring this legislation if and when the Democrats are ready to become serious. Clearly, today, they are not”.
Senator Bill Hagerty, who presented the bill in the first place, went further, claiming that the legislators who voted against the opening debate in fact voted to “kill the cryptographic industry here in America”.
Read more: The Senate Republicans pleaded to continue with the debate at birth
Update (May 8, 2025, 18:55 UTC): Add remarks by the majority leader John Thune.
