Senators Press Treasury to Include States in Stablecoin Rules
U.S. senators are pushing Treasury not to sideline state regulators as the GENIUS Act shapes federal stablecoin oversight.
A group of U.S. senators sent a formal letter to the Treasury Department urging federal officials to preserve a meaningful role for state regulators as Congress advances the GENIUS Act, the landmark stablecoin legislation working its way through Capitol Hill. The lawmakers argued that cutting states out of the regulatory process would undermine a longstanding dual-banking framework that has governed American financial oversight for generations.
The GENIUS Act — Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins — is designed to create the first comprehensive federal framework for dollar-pegged digital assets. While the bill sets national standards, senators contend that states have already built meaningful expertise in licensing and supervising digital asset firms, and that expertise should not be discarded in favor of a purely top-down federal approach.
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The push reflects a broader tension in Washington over how aggressively the federal government should centralize crypto regulation. State regulators, particularly in New York and Wyoming, have spent years crafting their own crypto oversight regimes, and industry participants in those jurisdictions have invested heavily in compliance. Overriding those structures without coordination could create legal uncertainty and compliance costs across the sector.
The senators' intervention signals that the GENIUS Act's path to final passage remains contested, even among lawmakers broadly supportive of stablecoin legislation. How Treasury and congressional negotiators resolve the federal-versus-state jurisdiction question could determine whether the bill attracts the bipartisan support needed to clear the Senate.
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