The U.S. Senate Banking Committee has advanced the crypto industry's stablecoin bill, a major step toward getting President Donald Trump to sign the legislation into law.
The bill, which would regulate U.S. stablecoin issuers at the federal level, now needs to be passed in a vote by the entire Senate.
The Senate Banking Committee supported the legislation in a vote of 18 to six.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose price is tied to an underlying asset, typically the U.S. dollar or gold bullion.
Many Democrats on the committee acknowledged the need for the bill while also seeking to add amendments that provide additional regulatory controls and limits, each of which was shot down with partisan votes cast by Republican lawmakers.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the panel's ranking Democrat, led her colleagues' objections against certain provisions of the bill, which she said represent “a clear threat to our national security.”
However, all of Warren’s proposed amendments to the bill were rejected.
Warren noted that the legislation arrives as President Trump himself is creating his own stablecoin that he plans to sell to his supporters.
The cryptocurrency industry is counting on an increasingly strong majority of lawmakers in both chambers to back its policies under the Trump administration.
A separate effort to remove an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rule that was opposed by the crypto sector won wide support in the Senate and lower House of Representatives.
Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. were previously reluctant to move forward with most crypto legislation.
However, the 2024 election put Republicans in charge of both chambers of Congress, and the ranking Republican Party has made stablecoin legislation one of its top priorities.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is currently trading at $83,350 U.S., having declined 11% so far this year.
