{"id":9410,"date":"2025-05-20T02:01:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T02:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senate-advances-landmark-crypto-bill-with-democrats-divided\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T02:01:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T02:01:38","slug":"senate-advances-landmark-crypto-bill-with-democrats-divided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senate-advances-landmark-crypto-bill-with-democrats-divided\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate advances landmark crypto bill with Democrats divided"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Senate voted Monday to advance landmark cryptocurrency legislation, with 16 Democrats siding with most Republicans on a key procedural motion that could set the stage for the upper chamber to pass its first-ever crypto regulatory overhaul.<\/p>\n

The Senate voted 66-32 to proceed on the bill<\/a> following a series of bipartisan negotiations in which Republicans agreed to an array of changes<\/a> to win over enough Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold required to advance the measure.<\/p>\n

The vote is a major win for the crypto industry, which has lobbied Congress for years to pass legislation that would help legitimize digital assets. The bill, led by Sen. Bill Hagerty<\/a> (R-Tenn.), would create the first-ever U.S. regulatory framework for digital tokens known as stablecoins that are pegged to the value of the dollar.<\/p>\n

It comes less than two weeks after Senate Democrats rejected the stablecoin bill on the floor<\/a> the last time it went up for a procedural vote after a series of last-minute bipartisan talks failed to yield a tangible deal in time and Democrats objected to the language that Republicans had teed up to pass. Negotiators returned to the table this week and agreed to a tentative new draft bill that was circulated over the weekend<\/a> and is expected to be adopted as an amendment ahead of a vote on final passage.<\/p>\n

The procedural motion drew support from 16 Democrats: Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand<\/a> of New York, Angela Alsobrooks<\/a> of Maryland, Ruben Gallego<\/a> of Arizona, Mark Warner<\/a> of Virginia, Lisa Blunt Rochester<\/a> of Delaware, Catherine Cortez Masto<\/a> of Nevada, Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n<\/a> of New Mexico, Adam Schiff<\/a> of California, Cory Booker<\/a> of New Jersey, Elissa Slotkin<\/a> of Michigan, John Fetterman<\/a> of Pennsylvania, Maggie Hassan<\/a> of New Hampshire, Martin Heinrich<\/a> of New Mexico, Jon Ossoff<\/a> of Georgia, Alex Padilla<\/a> of California, and Jacky Rosen<\/a> of Nevada.<\/p>\n

Two Republicans \u2014 Sens. Rand Paul<\/a> of Kentucky and Jerry Moran<\/a> of Kansas \u2014 voted against the motion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis cloture vote represents a major milestone in our bipartisan effort to regulate stablecoins,\u201d Gillibrand, the lead Democratic co-sponsor said in a statement. \u201cI\u2019m confident that we have produced a strong regulatory framework that will position our country for the future, and I look forward to seeing it signed into law.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Democrat who voted for the bill when it cleared the Senate Banking Committee in March, Sen. Andy Kim<\/a>, voted \u201cno\u201d on Monday. The New Jersey lawmaker was seen on the floor just prior to the stablecoin vote reviewing written materials in a binder with Gillibrand, Hagerty and aides involved in drafting the bill.<\/p>\n

Despite the changes won by Democrats in negotiations, the crypto bill is divisive on the left<\/a>. Most Democrats opposed the legislation, with some citing concerns about the Trump family\u2019s crypto ventures. The party\u2019s leader on the Senate Banking Committee, Elizabeth Warren<\/a>, sought to rally the opposition, saying on the floor ahead of the vote that the bill\u2019s \u201cbasic flaws remain unaddressed\u201d by the recent changes. The Massachusetts Democrat was seen having a heated conversation with Gillibrand on the Senate floor during the vote on the stablecoin bill while other senators were surrounding the two.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bill that turbocharges the stablecoin market, while facilitating the President\u2019s corruption and undermining national security, financial stability, and consumer protection is worse than no bill at all,\u201d Warren said in her floor speech.<\/p>\n

Other Democrats said the legislation is necessary to provide certainty to stablecoin issuers, despite concerns about the Trump family businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany senators, myself included, have very real concerns about the Trump family\u2019s use of crypto technologies to evade oversight, hide shady financial dealings, and personally profit at the expense of everyday Americans,\u201d Warner \u2014 who helped lead negotiations for Democrats alongside Gillibrand, Alsobrooks and Gallego \u2014 said in a statement prior to the vote. \u201cBut we cannot allow that corruption to blind us to the broader reality: blockchain technology is here to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s vote clears the way for Senate GOP leaders to put the legislation up for final passage, but that vote may not occur until after Congress\u2019 Memorial Day recess. Beyond that, the bill still has a long way to go before it reaches President Donald Trump\u2019s desk. If the Senate passes the legislation, it will go to the GOP-controlled House, where it will need to be reconciled with a separate but similar stablecoin measure that cleared the House Financial Services Committee last month.<\/p>\n

Katherine Hapgood and Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate voted Monday to advance landmark cryptocurrency legislation, with 16 Democrats siding with most Republicans on a key procedural motion that could set the stage for the upper chamber to pass its first-ever crypto regulatory overhaul. The Senate voted 66-32 to proceed on the bill following a series of bipartisan negotiations in which Republicans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}