U.S. Senate Passes the GENIUS Act
The U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act 68–30, advancing the first major federal framework for payment stablecoins toward enactment. Although the bill centered on stablecoins rather than Bitcoin, the Senate vote marked a major stage in the wider U.S. digital-asset regulatory regime in which Bitcoin institutions and markets operate.
On June 17, 2025, the U.S. Senate passed S.1582, the GENIUS Act, by a 68–30 vote. The bill established a proposed federal framework for payment stablecoins, including rules for permitted issuers, reserve backing, disclosures and regulatory supervision. The Senate vote was a major procedural breakthrough after years in which federal digital-asset legislation had repeatedly stalled before reaching enactment.
The GENIUS Act was not a Bitcoin law. Its direct subject was payment stablecoins, and the June vote did not change Bitcoin’s protocol, supply or legal classification. Its relevance to Bitcoin lay in the broader regulatory architecture around U.S. digital-asset markets: exchanges, custodians, banks and trading platforms that serve Bitcoin users also operate through stablecoin liquidity and settlement channels. Passage in the Senate also demonstrated that a substantial bipartisan coalition could form around federal digital-asset legislation.
The June vote was not the final legal stage. The House later passed major digital-asset legislation during July’s “Crypto Week,” and President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18. The Senate passage nevertheless marked the moment the stablecoin framework cleared the chamber that had long been considered one of the principal obstacles to federal crypto legislation.