06/16 update below. This post was originally published on June 15
Bitcoin and crypto have surged this year as traders bet U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration will further boost the bitcoin price (helped by Treasury secretary Scott Bessent issuing a surprise crypto market prediction).
The bitcoin price has traded above $100,000 per bitcoin since early May after rebounding from Trump’s tariff-induced slump as rumors swirl of a looming, “extraordinary” White House update.
Now, as traders await an imminent Federal Reserve bombshell, the U.S. Senate is poised to vote on the Trump administration’s landmark stablecoin bill, with Trump promising it will lead to the U.S. “dominating” bitcoin and crypto and expected to open up the crypto market to “trillions of tokenized dollars.”
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U.S. president Donald Trump has made it a priority of his administration to get stablecoin … More
This week, the U.S. Senate voted 68 to 30 to move forward the so-called Genius Act that would regulate stablecoins, setting the bipartisan bill up for a final vote that’s scheduled for Tuesday, June 17.
06/16 update: Amazon and Walmart are among some of the biggest companies weighing whether to launch their own stablecoins or forge partnership with stablecoin companies, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing anonymous sources.
Travel company Expedia and unnamed airlines were also said to be considering creating their own stablecoins to ease the cost and speed of transactions as a result of stablecoin legislation that’s expected to be passed by U.S. lawmakers.
If individual companies decide they’d prefer to launch their own stablecoins rather than use those issued by the likes of Tether and Circle or use those in development by Wall Street banks, it could disrupt the entire financial system, starting with the companies who make the most from processing fees: Visa and Mastercard.
In May, a report revealed Mark Zuckerberg is planning to add crypto support for Meta’s 3 billion global users. Meta is “in discussions with crypto firms to introduce stablecoins as a means to manage payouts,” Fortune reported, citing anonymous sources.
Meta, which runs the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms and is developing a shared virtual reality it calls the metaverse, is still licking its wounds from its failed attempt to upend the global financial system with its libra-diem crypto-inspired currency that was torpedoed by regulators in 2019.
“The version of the Genius Act that we will invoke cloture on today reflects months of hard work and negotiations from members on both sides of the aisle,” Republican majority leader John Thune said in comments reported by Politico, adding, “it’s time to move forward and pass this legislation.”
If sent onto Trump’s desk for his signature, the Genius Act would provide a legal and regulatory framework for stablecoins—a form of bitcoin-inspired cryptocurrency that’s usually pegged to the U.S. dollar and used to move money around the world more quickly and cheaply than traditional payment rails.
“This clarity could unlock trillions in financial and payment rails innovation,” Samir Kerbage, chief investment officer at Hashdex Asset Management, said in emailed comments, and pointing to stablecoin transaction volume that has recently surpassed Visa and Mastercard.
“A finalized framework [for stablecoin legislation] in the U.S. could unleash a new wave of institutional adoption and product innovation, possibly bringing trillions of tokenized dollars to the market in the years to come.”
The stablecoin market—dominated by Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC—has rocketed from almost zero 10 years ago to $250 billion today, with Wall Street, the world’s biggest retailers and Silicon Valley technology giants this year scrambling to grab a slice of the red-hot market.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent echoed a report from analysts with Standard Chartered Bank this week when he predicted U.S. stablecoin legislation would boost the market 10-fold to around $2 trillion.
Meanwhile, U.S. president Donald Trump said he’s proud to be considered the first “crypto president” during a pre-recorded address to Coinbase’s State of Crypto Summit, telling attendees that after passing the Genius Act stablecoin legislation he wants to create a “clear and simple market frameworks that will allow America to dominate the future of crypto and bitcoin.”
Trump has fully embraced bitcoin and crypto over the last year, following through on his campaign promise to create a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve via an executive order in March and also launching his own memecoin and U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin via his family’s World Liberty Financial project.
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The bitcoin price has surged over the last year, topping $100,000 as U.S. president Donald Trump … More
Trump’s growing ties to crypto, which Forbes found has added around $1 billion to his personal wealth, has been used by Democratic Party lawmakers to campaign against the Genius Act, with Democratic representative Jamie Raskin from Maryland warning last month that Trump’s crypto ventures offered the “perfect opportunity for foreign government, corporate and individual funds to be funneled into Donald Trump’s bank account and his family’s finances.”
Bitcoin and crypto traders expecting clarity on stablecoin regulation has helped support the bitcoin price in recent months that’s been rocked along with stock markets by trade tensions.
“Bitcoin appears to be consolidating above $100,000,” David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, said in emailed comments, pointing to the settling market turmoil caused by Trump’s global trade war.
“Recent moves to strengthen regulation across stablecoins have also helped.”
