U.S. Senate Democrats are expressing concern about advancing landmark stablecoin legislation due to the U.S. President Donald Trump’s increasing personal ties to the crypto industry.
Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat representing Arizona, along with eight of his colleagues, warned that they would not vote to advance the current version of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025 (GENIUS Act). The bill still requires 60 votes to move forward.
Democrats have been voicing concerns behind the scenes for several days. According to Axios, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned during a caucus meeting last week that he may withhold support.
A source working with lawmakers and legislative aides told CoinDesk, “The stablecoin bill should ultimately still sail through Congress, but any slowing of ongoing momentum could threaten the bill — which, in turn, would likely delay progress on market structure legislation intended to define how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are to oversee the industry.”
Meanwhile, Trump denied profiting from his crypto ventures in an interview with CNBC: “All I’m doing is, I started this long before the election. I want crypto. I think crypto’s important because if we don’t do it, China’s going to. And it’s new, it’s very popular, it’s very hot. If you look at the market, when the market went down, that stayed much stronger than other aspects of the market. But I want crypto because a lot of people, you know, millions of people want it.”