Everyone's claiming victory after Senate's crypto meltdown
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
A week ago, the GENIUS Act looked set to sail through the Senate with bipartisan support for regulating stablecoins. On Thursday, it stalled out — and the blame game is in full force.
Why it matters: Everyone will try to claim victory from this failure. They may all be right.
- Democrats are proud they stuck together to try to force Republicans to make changes. When Democrats asked for more time — and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) didn't give it to them — they held the line.
- But Republicans seemed willing to accept a short-term setback to prove a broader point: Democrats aren't serious about crypto, they said. Donors can expect to hear all about it.
Zoom in: The debate presented Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) with the familiar predicament of convincing his colleagues to stay together on a procedural vote to extract policy changes.
- He didn't lose a single Democratic senator in today's 49-48 vote. It needed 60 to pass.
- Even Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) — who both received millions of dollars in crypto industry donations — voted "no."
- Democrats were suspicious that Republicans wanted them to vote yes on the procedural vote without allowing them to read the new bill text.
The other side: Republicans accused Democrats of moving the goalposts.
- They argued the vote would have simply started the real debate, with another round requiring 60 votes for Democrats to get their changes into the bill.
- "I don't know what more they want," Thune said on the floor, insisting the bill had already been litigated in committee, where it received five Democratic votes.
- After it became clear the vote would fail, Thune changed his vote to "no" on the floor to preserve his ability to bring the bill back in the future.
But Democrats insisted they were negotiating in good faith and even abandoned a provision that looked suspiciously anti-Trump.
- "[A] lot of us had recognized that made it very difficult for the Republicans," Gallego told reporters.
The bottom line: Republicans were quick to broadcast to crypto donors that Democrats weren't serious about crypto regulations.
- "Anyone backing Senate Democrats in hopes of crypto progress is ignoring reality," NRSC executive director Jennifer DeCasper said in a statement.
