The House Financial Services Committee voted to advance a bill to regulate stablecoins late on April 2. The move came amid recent news that World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm linked to President Donald Trump, plans to launch a stablecoin of its own.
The bill — sponsored by Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark., and a bipartisan group of 10 other representatives — passed the committee in a 32-17 vote.
At the bill markup, Steil said the bill “creates a clear regulatory framework” for stablecoins — digital assets that link their value to that of another asset such as the dollar — “with strict requirements for reserves, transparency and compliance with anti-money laundering laws. It ensures that issuers are licensed, supervised and held to robust standards of enforcement.”
However, several Democrats expressed concern over the bill and how it would impact the stablecoin launch from World Liberty Financial, the Trump-affiliated venture.
“There are just clear conflicts of interest here, which should be concerning to members on both sides of the aisle,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the committee’s ranking member, at the bill markup.
Waters said she tried to reach an agreement with Hill to “not pass a bill that legitimizes what is blatant greed and corruption,” and requested to insert bill language that would prevent the president “from using this legislation to unjustly enrich himself.”
However, “we could not come to an agreement on that,” she said.
Waters offered two amendments aimed at addressing that issue, and Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., one of the bill’s original co-sponsors, offered an amendment as well, though their amendments didn’t pass. Many Democrats on the committee offered a host of amendments to the bill that led to long hours of debate, with the markup ultimately lasting more than 12 hours and votes taking place late in the evening on April 2.
In the last Congress, Waters worked with former Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., on stablecoin legislation, but she said that “things have changed” since then, referencing Trump’s crypto activities. In January, Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, also launched their own crypto tokens, often referred to as meme coins.
The Senate has introduced its own version of stablecoin legislation, which the Senate Banking Committee advanced in March.
