Latest news with #GENIUS
Time of India
8 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Circle stock soars again as Senate passes groundbreaking Stablecoin Bill, analysts say it's still a Buy
Circle Internet Group Inc 's stock has continued its rally on Friday as investor enthusiasm skyrocketed after the Senate approved the GENIUS Act , a regulatory framework for the use of stablecoins, as per a report. Circle's Stock Keeps Climbing After Stablecoin Bill Boost The financial services company is set to end the week higher by over 58% and has surged over 500% since its initial public offering on June 5, reported CNBC. According to the report, Circle's stock increased almost 17% earlier in the day. Analysts Still See More Upside While, this has led Seaport Research Partners analyst Jeff Cantwell to issue Circle with a buy rating and a price target of $235 a share, about 18% above the stock's closing level of $199.59 a share on Wednesday, as per Market Watch. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo The GENIUS bill, which stands for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, passed the Senate on Tuesday and now will head to the House of Representatives, after this announcement, Circle's shares jumped 33% on Wednesday, reported CNBC. ALSO READ: TACO: Trump gives himself two weeks to strike Iran – reporters wonder if he'll chicken out again Live Events How GENIUS Bill Could Change Everything Head of research at crypto-focused asset manager Galaxy Digital, Alex Thorn said, 'The GENIUS Act would meaningfully upgrade dollar payment rails in ways that speed settlement times, improve transparency, promote dollar dominance, and juice U.S. debt demand,' quoted CNBC. He also pointed out that, 'The bill would add substantial consumer protections, collateral requirements, and regulatory oversight, while creating a pathway for innovators and incumbents to use public blockchains to move dollars worldwide. Getting traditional finance onto public blockchains through stablecoins could also open the door for wider adoption of bitcoin, crypto, and [decentralized finance] generally," as quoted in the report. Thorn's remark comes as stablecoins have attracted investor interest, especially after Amazon, Walmart Uber, Apple and Airbnb are reportedly exploring the possibility of using or issuing their own stablecoins, according to CNBC. FAQs Why is Circle's stock rising so fast? Mainly because the US Senate passed a bill that could bring stablecoins into the financial mainstream, and Circle is a major player in that space. What happens next for the GENIUS Act? It goes to the House of Representatives, where lawmakers will debate and vote on it, as per reports.
CNBC
10 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Circle shares extend their rally after Senate passes landmark stablecoin bill
Shares of Circle continued to climb on Friday as investors cheered the Senate approval of its proposed stablecoin legislation, the GENIUS Act. The stock was up 14% in premarket trading as excitement continued to build. The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday, and shares rose 33% on Wednesday. The market was closed Thursday for the Juneteenth holiday. Circle is on pace to end the week higher by almost 50%. It has rocketed more than 500% since its initial public offering on June 5. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose values are pegged to that of another asset, usually the U.S. dollar. Traditionally used as bridge currencies for crypto traders, stablecoins today are benefiting from increased interest by banks and payment firms as the Trump administration rolls back Biden-era crypto policies. Stablecoins have attracted a groundswell of investor interest in anticipation of regulatory clarity from Congress, as they have the potential to make payments faster and cheaper. Amazon and Walmart are reportedly exploring the possibility of using or issuing their own stablecoins. Uber, Apple and Airbnb are among other big companies reported to be exploring stablecoins in recent weeks. The GENIUS (short for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins) Act seeks to establish clear regulatory guidelines for the use of stablecoins regarding issuance, reserves and compliance. The bill now heads to the house, which has its own stablecoin legislation in the works, called the STABLE Act.
Coin Geek
2 days ago
- Business
- Coin Geek
Senate approves GENIUS bill, but House uncertainty awaits
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... The United States Senate has made history by approving stablecoin legislation, a first for Congress, but uncertainty awaits the bill in the House of Representatives. On June 17, the Senate voted 68-30 in favor of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, marking the first time that the upper chamber of Congress has passed a bill governing digital assets and the first time either chamber has approved legislation governing stablecoins. The House passed a digital asset market structure bill (FIT21) last year that the Senate failed to take up before Congress adjourned for the 2024 elections. Tuesday's margin of victory was identical to last week's cloture vote, with 18 Democrats voting 'aye.' The ever-expanding list of questionable crypto ventures linked to President Donald Trump and his family—including the launch of their own stablecoin (USD1) this spring—proved incapable of dissuading pro-crypto Dems from supporting the bill. GENIUS was supported by all but two Republicans. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) opposed GENIUS because it allows private corporations to issue their own stablecoins. Hawley called this 'a huge giveaway to Big Tech' and filed an amendment to limit tech firms' stablecoin activities. But he said the language was 'gutted' in the final GENIUS text, leaving only 'window dressing' where concrete restrictions were intended. GOP leadership refused to consider other amendments, disappointing those who'd been promised an open amendment process by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). Some GENIUS critics sought additional language to limit Trump's ability to profit off a financial sector over which he has direct control, while other critics wanted stricter rules governing foreign-based stablecoin issuers like Tether (USDT). Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who helped steer GENIUS to the finish line, said the bill's 'long and winding journey … would have been much easier if the Trump family wasn't so grossly involved in this emerging sector.' As for what tipped other Dems into the 'aye' camp, well, more on that at the bottom of this article. One of the prime beneficiaries of GENIUS will be the U.S.-based Circle (NASDAQ: CRCL), the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, which is second only to Tether in terms of stablecoin market cap. Circle made its Nasdaq debut less than two weeks ago and the stock closed Tuesday down 1.3%, but news of GENIUS's passage produced a nearly 3% bump in after-hours trading. Tether has previously mused about launching a new U.S.-compliant stablecoin that would limit unwanted regulatory scrutiny on USDT, including subjecting its reserves to a third-party audit. While Circle execs tweeted effusive praise for the Senate on Tuesday, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has so far tweeted only the word 'GENIUS' alongside some America-themed emojis and a brain. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a celebratory tweet ahead of the GENIUS vote, claiming that the bill's success could boost the overall stablecoin market to $3.7 trillion by the end of the decade. That's nearly twice the $2 trillion market that Bessent predicted during a Senate hearing last week. Either figure would be a significant boost to the current cap of just $261.5 billion. House v Senate for all the crypto marbles All eyes now turn to the House of Representatives, where GENIUS may get a slightly cooler reception than Senate Republicans might prefer. Politico reported that GOP leadership in both the House and Senate are of two minds when it comes to how best to proceed. The House reportedly favors combining stablecoin legislation with a comprehensive market structure bill like the House's Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which has already cleared multiple markup sessions. The Senate has yet to introduce its own market structure bill and leadership would prefer getting a conference committee to quickly negotiate the differences between GENIUS and the House's STABLE Act, which met with approval from the Financial Services Committee (FSC) but has yet to hit the House floor. The Senate reportedly wants a quick 'win' on stablecoins to distract from its squabbles with the House over Trump's 'big, beautiful' spending bill. House crypto boosters like Warren Davidson (R-OH) told Politico the Senate 'clearly doesn't… have the consensus built to deal with market structure.' Davidson favors bundling stablecoins, market structure and a ban on central bank digital currencies (CBDC) into a single bill that the House can send the Senate. As FSC Chair French Hill (R-AR) told Fox Business last week: 'Both these bills are very, very important to the goal of a digital asset for the future of the U.S. You can't just pass a stablecoin bill and have any place to effectively use it. You need the CLARITY Act to give us that market framework.' Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), the driving force behind GENIUS, warned that if his stablecoin bill was modified by the House to include market structure language (and whatever else), 'it would have to come back to the Senate for a lot of work.' The House breaks for the summer in the last week of July, while the Senate's last day is August 1. That makes a tight timeline for both chambers to coalesce around a strategy, harmonize bill language, and get something to the president's desk for signing by Labor Day. Back to the top ↑ CFTC chairman or lighthouse keeper? CLARITY would hand the bulk of crypto oversight to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), with a far smaller role for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But questions remain as to whether the chronically understaffed and underfunded CFTC is up to the task. Brian Quintenz, Trump's nominee to lead the CFTC, has yet to be confirmed by the Senate, but once he is, he'll find only half the usual number of commissioners to help oversee all things crypto (and the two that remain aren't sticking around). That one-man-show could continue should the president not bother to fill those four empty commissioner seats, prioritizing 'efficiency' over consensus building. Trump has long disdained the norms of seeking Congressional approval of key agency appointments, often using the 'acting' designation to sidestep longstanding advise & consent protocols, appointing new 'acting' execs when the original appointee's grace period expires. A new Bloomberg article notes that there's nothing that legally compels Trump to fill the empty chairs anytime soon, which would empower Quintenz to make unilateral decisions on everything from regulatory matters to signing CFTC office leases, as well as dealing with letters from aggrieved stakeholders. Back to the top ↑ Gemini seeks, er, something from CFTC Speaking of angry missives, the CFTC just received a nasty letter from attorneys representing brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their Gemini exchange. The letter takes issues with the conduct of lawyers representing the agency's Division of Enforcement (DOE) for bringing 'dubious false statements charges' against Gemini. By way of background, in January, Gemini reached a $5 million settlement with the CFTC regarding the 2022 civil complaint accusing Gemini of 'making false or misleading statements of material facts' regarding a BTC-based exchange-traded product (ETP). The complaint accused two unspecified individuals—who may or may not have been the Winklevii—of loaning 'thousands' of BTC at artificially low rates to market-makers to ensure the ETP's trading volume met CFTC standards. Gemini's letter accused DOE staff of having 'selectively and unfairly weaponized the Commodity Exchange Act' against the company. Gemini claims the DOE's original sin was taking seriously 'a false whistleblower report' filed by its former chief operating officer Benjamin Small. Gemini claims Small was fired for hiding the existence of 'a multi-million dollar rebate fraud perpetrated by two Gemini Trust customers.' Following his dismissal, Small allegedly vowed to 'destroy' Gemini and filed the report that Gemini claims convinced the CFTC to launch a probe into the exchange's operations in 2018. The company's letter to CFTC Inspector General Christopher Skinner doesn't ask the regulator to do much, except to act on reforms proposed last month by soon-to-be-ex-commissioner Caroline Pham (who is serving as acting chairman while Quintenz warms the bench). Other than that, the letter is simply a list of grievances detailing how unfairly Gemini feels it was treated at the CFTC's hands. It's possible that Gemini might be seeking to claw back some or all of that $5 million settlement, taking advantage of the 180° attitude shift towards digital assets by federal agencies since Trump took his oath of office in January. If that's the case, Gemini could be taking their cue from Ripple Labs, which last August was ordered to pay the SEC $125 million for violating securities laws. Since Trump's election, Ripple has teamed up with the SEC's new management to press the judge to return $75 million of that sum to Ripple. (The SEC dropped its civil complaint against Gemini in February.) While the climate for crypto operators has indeed undergone a sea change at the federal level, it's perhaps notable that Gemini has yet to file a similar complaint with the New York Attorney General's office, which in June 2024 fined Gemini $50 million for defrauding investors of the Gemini Earn program. But New York Attorney General (NYAG) Letitia James isn't Trump's biggest fan, and she doesn't appear to feel any need to apologize to crypto operators who fail to color within the lines. Back to the top ↑ Fearing crypto cash, Dems go with the flow On June 16, The Lever reported on a private group chat on the encrypted Signal messaging platform featuring Democratic Party operatives and crypto lobbyists. The chats expose the naked self-interest behind some Dems' positions on crypto legislation like GENIUS, as many Dems see Trump's self-interested dealings all too clearly but calculate that publicly opposing the well-funded crypto sector will kill their electability. The 'Dem Crypto Policy Roundtable' chat group reportedly includes Capitol Hill staff, Democratic National Committee members, lobbyists, venture capitalists (including Paradigm and Electric Capital reps), and lawyers for major crypto firms. The chats reportedly discussed various crypto bills, including GENIUS and CLARITY. The Crypto Council for Innovation's Sheila Warren is quoted saying 'Trump's corruption is manifesting dramatically in crypto,' and advising 'ordinary' Dems running in the 2026 midterm elections to 'stay away from crypto apart from being vaguely supportive.' Dems on committees were given the option to 'flag the corruption and be a pro-crypto anti-corruption candidate.' Crypto lawyer Jason Gottlieb suggested it was pointless for Dem senators to performatively file anti-corruption amendments to GENIUS, saying such efforts 'will be doa [dead on arrival].' Gottlieb reasoned that '[n]obody is going to get primaried because they voted for GENIUS.' Gottlieb said if Dems want to win the next election they 'can not [sic] afford to alienate a very vocal and wealthy group of donors.' Electric Capital managing partner Avichal Garg put a finer point on it, saying if Dems didn't vote for GENIUS 'they will get 0 dollars going forward. It would be political suicide for them not to support it.' The crypto sector is clearly adopting a stick-and-carrot approach, as Bloomberg reported Tuesday on the number of Dem-adjacent individuals and companies being hired to advance crypto's cause. This includes Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) adding Kamala Harris campaign advisor David Plouffe to its Global Advisory Council last week, Tether hiring a lobbying firm run by former staffers to President Joe Biden, and venture capital giants Andreessen Horowitz hiring former Dem staffer Michael Reed as its new government affairs partner. Bloomberg quoted NYU adjunct professor Austin Campbell (also CEO of digital payment platform WSPN) saying the hires were a reflection of crypto's understanding that the Dems might not always be in the minority. 'If you made this industry explicitly partisan, boy do you have a problem.' Incidentally, Campbell was also in the Signal group chat, where he said opposing GENIUS would make voters see Dems as 'pro-bank.' Campbell also warned that calling out Trump's crypto corruption only makes him 'stronger, not weaker.' Faced with America's first Borg president, it seems resistance really is futile . Back to the top ↑ Watch: Breaking down solutions to blockchain regulation hurdles title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Can Tether's Dominance Survive the U.S. Stablecoin Bill?
Tether's USDT is the world's leading stablecoin. Its digital emulation of the U.S. dollar — 155 billion of them at last count — is unmatched. But as things stand, Tether almost certainly doesn't fulfill the compliance demands of U.S. lawmakers as they're expected to push legislation nearer to law on Tuesday afternoon. Tether may end up with a choice to make: Jump through some serious hoops to reach compliance with the future law, or stand back and try to hold onto non-U.S. market share as the U.S. industry potentially increases in scale and the federal government takes its customary role in steering the regulatory demands of other jurisdictions around the world, according to the predictions of experts. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025 (GENIUS) Act is the U.S. Senate bill that's facing its final path toward passage on Tuesday, which is a first for major crypto legislation. It then heads to the House of Representatives to be approved or to be worked on. In the end, both chambers have to OK the same language for President Donald Trump to be able to sign it into law. In its current form, the legislation leaves a path for foreign stablecoin issuers in the U.S., but it could be a complicated one. Broadly, if companies like Tether want to offer their tokens to U.S. users, they have to be regulated by a foreign regime that's been approved as having similar standards as the U.S. Also — depending on the final language — they would likely need to register with and be overseen by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a federal banking regulator, plus maintain "reserves in a United States financial institution sufficient to meet liquidity demands of United States customers" in a collapse. All issuers overseen by the potential law would have to follow strict reserve standards, maintaining cash, Treasuries and other related, highly-liquid assets that match their issuance one-for-one. They'd also need to be reviewed monthly by a registered public accounting firm, and the results certified by the CEO and CFO of the company, meaning the top executives would face legal liability for misleading the public. That's an unusually robust oversight that would require more frequent public assurances from stablecoin issuers than other financial institutions. Additionally, the companies must meet the full suite of money-laundering controls faced by U.S. financial firms. "I'm if I'm Tether, I'm not going to go rushing into the United States and say, 'I'm sure I want to be part of this, and I want to play in this game,' until I know what the regulations are," said Steve Gannon, a lawyer who works with digital assets clients at Davis Wright Tremaine, in a CoinDesk interview. "The downstream impact to Tether, in terms of having to comply with those regulations, could be a very considerable investment of time, effort, people, money and technology." In the end, Tether — one of the most lucrative businesses in the world — may continue focusing on emerging markets, where the GENIUS Act would have little sway. Tether has recently located its headquarters in crypto haven El Salvador, which is obviously not one of the global standouts in financial regulation. Still, the U.S. legislation gives tremendous discretion to the secretary of the Treasury Department to make calls on what countries have good enough regulations and whether certain firms might be granted various exemptions. "The Trump administration, for example, could strike a reciprocity agreement with the Bukele regime in El Salvador, where Tether is based, allowing Tether full access to the U.S. market while sidestepping the requirements of the bill," according to talking points released by the camp of one of the bill's chief opponents, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. "It is hard to imagine El Salvador setting up a regime that is as sophisticated and as safe as whatever the United States regime would be, even as weak as this one is," said Corey Frayer, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America and a former crypto policy adviser at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "And yet they would still be eligible, by the current set of regulators, to be granted reciprocity and treated as though they were subject to the same standards." Despite their strong rhetoric, Warren and her allies were unable to stop many of their Democratic colleagues from backing the bill, which the proponents argue would at least start providing oversight and controls on this key part of the industry. The bill's critics argue it still allows a major loophole for unregulated foreign stablecoins to be circulated on decentralized crypto platforms in the U.S. "Unfortunately, the GENIUS Act massively expands the marketplace for stablecoins while failing to address the basic national security risks posed by them," Warren said in a speech last week on the Senate floor. "It also includes glaring loopholes that would allow Tether, a notorious foreign stablecoin issuer now based in El Salvador, access to U.S. markets." However, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has signaled in recent weeks that the company may not try to get its market-leading token into the U.S. as a direct issuer and instead is mulling a U.S.-based offshoot settlement stablecoin that could be fully regulated domestically. U.S. regulation would be a lot to bite off for Tether, which isn't anywhere near checking those boxes. The company didn't respond to a request for comment on the GENIUS Act, but Tether warned its users in its online fine print updated this year: "if Tether fails to comply with changing regulatory regimes, Tether and its affiliates may be subject to regulatory actions, which may adversely affect Tether and its ability to operate." While the Senate progress is a massive and unprecedented policy win for the digital assets sector, a high amount of uncertainty remains, because the House will have its own say, and the more important companion legislation — the bill that would establish regulations for the rest of the crypto space — is still being worked out. Stablecoin issuers won't get definitive answers about their U.S. rules until a law clears Trump's desk and the relevant federal agencies then turn it into specific regulations. "The path forward for foreign issuers will face two hurdles, neither of which are known at present: (1) what the final law allows foreign issuers to do vis-à-vis U.S. customers, and under what conditions, and (2) how any related regulatory discretion is exercised to permit or restrict access to the U.S. market," said Richard Rosenthal, a principal at Deloitte who focuses on digital assets regulations in the banking sector, in an email to CoinDesk. "This is a politically contentious area, and it remains to be seen how this will play out." However, Frayer told CoinDesk that it's unlikely that the House lawmakers will make things less palatable for Tether — especially in the face of the company's ally in Trump's administration, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose former role atop broker Cantor Fitzgerald saw him managing Tether's U.S. reserves. "I don't think there's any world where the House forces anything that takes on Tether any further," Frayer said, though he added that if giant non-bank competitors start launching stablecoins, such as Google and Amazon, "there may be some incentive for the House to do more on that issue." U.S. company Circle and its USDC have been waiting in the wings to seize market share from chief competitor Tether, and Circle intends to be inside what some expect to be a U.S. crypto surge post-regulation. If institutional investors and traditional financial firms embrace digital assets as the industry hopes, Tether could miss out on that action if it continues to stay outside of the U.S. financial system. Earlier this year, the U.S. SEC added some stablecoins to its growing list of crypto projects that the agency sees as landing outside its area of concern. However, there was a bit of a warning sign for Tether in the agency's statement. Even as the regulator — run by crypto-friendly leaders since the election of Trump — dismissed stablecoins as well outside its securities jurisdiction, it indicated in a footnote that appropriate stablecoin reserves "do not include precious metals or other crypto assets," both of which are part of Tether's reserves. The GENIUS Act explicitly declares that "payment stablecoins are not securities or commodities and permitted payment stablecoin issuers are not investment companies, but it's not the law, yet. Such considerations are technically outside of Tether's concern in its current business model, which deliberately stays away from direct contact with U.S. customers. For in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Senate passes landmark GENIUS stablecoin bill, giving crypto industry its first major win
The Senate on Tuesday passed the GENIUS Act, a landmark bill that for the first time establishes federal guardrails for U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins and creates a regulated pathway for private companies to issue digital dollars with the blessing of the federal government. The bill passed with a 68-30 vote. It's a milestone day for the crypto industry and for President Donald Trump's sprawling digital asset empire. This is the first legislative victory for the digital asset industry, which put around $250 million in the 2024 cycle to elect what's now considered to be the most pro-crypto Congress in U.S. history. The bill still faces hurdles in the Republican-held House, but passage in the Senate signals a turning point — not just for the technology, but for the political clout behind it. The GENIUS Act, short for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, sets guardrails for the industry, including full reserve backing, monthly audits, and anti-money laundering compliance. It also opens the door to a broader range of issuers, including banks, fintechs, and major retailers looking to launch their own stablecoins or integrate them into existing payment systems. The bill grants sweeping authority to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who last week told a Senate appropriations subcommittee in a hearing that the U.S. stablecoin market could grow nearly eightfold to over $2 trillion in the next few years. "Stablecoin legislation backed by U.S. Treasuries or T-bills will create a market that will expand U.S. dollar usage via these stablecoins all around the world," Bessent said. GENIUS now heads to the House, which has its own version of a stablecoin bill dubbed STABLE. Both prohibit yield-bearing consumer stablecoins — but diverge on who regulates what. The Senate's version centralizes oversight with Treasury, while the House splits authority between the Federal Reserve, the Comptroller of the Currency, and others. Reconciling the two could take a while, according to Congressional aides. The GENIUS Act was supposed to be the easiest crypto bill to pass, but took months to reach the Senate floor, failed once, and passed only after fierce negotiations. "We thought it would be easiest to start with stablecoins," Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said on stage in Las Vegas at this year's Bitcoin 2025 conference, which focused heavily on stablecoins. "It has been extremely difficult. I had no idea how hard this was going to be," she said. At the same event, Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., echoed the frustration: "It has been murder to get them there," he said of the 18 Senate Democrats who ultimately crossed the aisle. Stablecoins are a subset of cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of real-world assets. About 99% of all stablecoins are tethered to the price of the U.S. dollar. The appeal is simple: Stablecoins offer instant settlement and lower transaction fees, cutting out the middlemen and directly threatening legacy payment rails. Shopify has already rolled out USDC-powered payments through Coinbase and Stripe. Bank of America's CEO said last week at a Morgan Stanley conference that they're having conversations with the industry and individually exploring stablecoin issuance. Payment stocks like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Block slid after The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon and Walmart are exploring their own stablecoins. That action has helped drive Circle's blockbuster stock surge, with shares up 400% since its public debut on June 5. Deutsche Bank found that stablecoin transactions hit $28 trillion last year, surpassing that of Mastercard and Visa, combined. Still, there are limits. The GENIUS Act limits non-financial Big Tech companies from directly issuing stablecoins unless they establish or partner with regulated financial entities — a provision meant to blunt monopoly concerns. JPMorgan, meanwhile, is taking a different route, launching JPMD, a deposit token designed to function like a stablecoin but tightly integrated with the traditional banking system. Issued on Coinbase's Base blockchain, JPMD is only available to institutional clients and offers features like 24/7 settlement and interest payments — part of the broader push by legacy finance to adapt to the stablecoin era without ceding ground to crypto-native firms. While Democrats tried to amend the bill to prevent the president from profiting off crypto ventures, the final legislation only bars members of Congress and their families from doing so. Trump's first financial disclosure as president, released Friday, revealed he earned at least $57 million in 2024 alone from token sales tied to World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform closely aligned with his political brand. He holds nearly 16 billion WLFI governance tokens — the crypto equivalent of voting shares — which could be worth close to $1 billion on paper, based on prior private sales. That's just one slice of the Trump crypto pie. The family's ventures, which include the controversial $TRUMP meme coin, a $2.5 billion bitcoin Treasury and proposed bitcoin and ether ETFs via and a newly launched mining firm called American Bitcoin, reflect a full-throttle push into digital finance. Forbes recently estimated Trump's crypto holdings at nearly $1 billion, lifting his total net worth to $5.6 billion.
