The Genius Act – Washington’s stab at regulating stablecoins – cleared the U.S. Senate on June 17 and was sent to the U.S. House, where it will either pass or be reconciled with the STABLE Act, the House’s own stablecoin bill. Because stablecoin issuers must hold low-risk assets like U.S. Treasurys, analysts suggest the growth of the stablecoins may quiet turmoil in the bond markets.
President Donald Trump made it clear where he stands on the matter, demanding via Truth Social that the House get the Senate’s bill to him unchanged “LIGHTNING FAST,” declaring it “a big win for America.” With the president having thrown down the gauntlet, time will tell if the House debates the bill, tries to marry it to aspects of the STABLE Act, or passes it as is.
The headline of a guest essay in the New York Times declared, “The Genius Act Will Bring Economic Chaos.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who Disruption Banking wrote about here, announced, “A bill that turbocharges the stablecoin market, while facilitating the president’s corruption and undermining national security, financial stability, and consumer protection is worse than no bill at all.”
Not all on the (yankee) left are doom and gloom. Several Democrats, eighteen of them, joined their Republican colleagues to vote for the bill. Although the loudest voices echo former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s war on crypto, that conflict is receding quickly in the rearview mirror.
And several major Fortune 500 companies are kicking the proverbial tires of stablecoins.
Big Tech Eyes Suddenly Sexy Stablecoins
Some of the biggest companies in the world are exploring the possibility of integrating stablecoins into their payment infrastructures. Just a few of the companies that could adopt stablecoins in the near future:
- Apple. Sources say the company has been interested in stablecoin integration into Apple Pay since January and is in talks with Circle’s senior director, Matt Cavin.
- Google has been partnering with Web3 and blockchain-based businesses for years. The head of Web3 strategy at Google Cloud, Rich Widmann, recently said the company is exploring stablecoin integration to reduce costs and streamline cross-border payments.
- Airbnb has long been looking for ways to reduce the cost of credit cards and overseas transactions. It has been in talks with Worldpay, a company with stablecoin capabilities.
- Meta. In May, Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly evaluating stablecoins across several platforms to reduce international transaction costs.
- Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently told Bloomberg Tech Summit that the company was investigating stablecoins as a payment option.
- X. Once Dogecoin’s biggest fan, Elon Musk is working with Visa to create X money for peer-to-peer payments. A source told Fortune he’s considering stablecoins and is in conversations with Stripe, a fintech payment processor that recently re-entered the crypto space with stablecoins.
It’s a motley crew, but they have deep pockets.
Show Me the (Pegged) Money!
All this just weeks after Circle Internet Group (CRCL) debuted on the U.S. stock exchange with a modest $31 IPO. At the time of writing, CRCL is clocking in around $260, a more than eightfold increase that has triggered double takes across TradFi.
If the rumors about Big Tech adopting stablecoins are true, it could be a turning point for crypto. No longer the boring brother of Bitcoin, stablecoins look poised to be the Trojan Horse that ushers in mainstream crypto adoption.
Considering the likelihood of regulation passing in the U.S. this year and the advantages of stablecoin adoption, it might not be long before some of these companies enter the fray.
From Capitol Hill to Crypto Hill
The president, as noted, is urging lawmakers to get the bill to his desk “ASAP” so he can sign it into law.
On June 18, the President posted a typical screed on the platform he owns:
“The Senate just passed an incredible Bill that is going to make America the UNDISPUTED Leader in Digital Assets — Nobody will do it better, it is pure GENIUS! Digital Assets are the future, and our Nation is going to own it. We are talking about MASSIVE Investment, and Big Innovation. The House will hopefully move LIGHTNING FAST, and pass a “clean” GENIUS Act. Get it to my desk, ASAP — NO DELAYS, NO ADD ONS. This is American Brilliance at its best, and we are going to show the World how to WIN with Digital Assets like never before!“
Although there has been some pushback on the bill from democrats concerning Trump’s involvement in the crypto industry, both sides agree on the importance of clear regulations in the industry.
When the bill is signed into law, one requirement would be that stablecoins be backed by liquid assets like the U.S. dollar or short-term treasury bills on a 1:1 basis. This could be a much-needed boost for the treasury market and help preserve the dominance of the U.S. dollar. It could also be what Big Tech is waiting for before adopting the superior form of internet money.
Or, as some speculate, it could make Europe work that much faster to integrate its own digital currency, which could possibly compete with the hegemonic dominance of the dollar in international finance. Either way, big tech is moving in to adopt this new form of internet money.
Crypto with Actual Utility
Unlike meme coins named after dogs, cats, and even farts, stablecoins have clear use cases for people and businesses around the world.
These characteristics have led to the rise in stablecoin use throughout the globe, particularly in countries like Nigeria and Ethiopia, where inflation, inferior banking services, and a lack of foreign exchange services have created a need.
According to popular crypto and financial analyst and influencer Anthony Pompliano, “stablecoins are the intersection between crypto and traditional finance,” a statement that will be proven true if the biggest tech companies in the world opt-in.
Global Movement Toward Stablecoins
The U.S. might be sprinting towards regulation, corporate America is slowly setting themselves up to take advantage of the regulatory sea change. Meanwhile, other countries and economic blocs are making their own moves.
South Korea wants a won-pegged coin. The country’s newly elected president, Lee Jae-Myung, plans to create a stablecoin linked to the won currency, and the European regulatory body Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCa) is discussing stablecoin regulation in for the 27 nations of the economic union.
However, in Europe, the push is towards a Centralized Digital Bank Currency (CBDC) – a move that’s highly criticized by most people in the crypto space who believe in the ethos of decentralization. It’s enough to make decentralization diehards clutch their cold wallets.
Still, the movement is undeniable.
Morgan Stanley projects that purchases of T-Bills by stablecoin issuers could surge to $1.6 trillion, representing as much as 25% of current T-Bill issuance over the next two years. Standard Chartered projects the stablecoin market could balloon to $2 trillion by 2028.
Considering the market cap on stablecoins is currently around $250 billion, according to Reuters, it may seem like a remote possibility for such a shelling out of capital for stablecoins, but such is the fervor of crypto mania around the passing of the Genius Act.
While investment banks are bullish, the Bank for International Settlements signaled a note of caution, warning that the outflows of the stablecoin market will raise yields, exposing the Treasury market to “potential fire sales in the event of a run on a major stablecoin.”
Revolution or Rebrand?
Critics of stablecoins, such as economist Barry Eichengreen in the New York Times, have likened stablecoins to the currencies of state chartered banks during the Free Banking Era, a pre-Civil War system where banks could issue their own banknotes, usually backed by state bonds, but under wildly divergent levels of oversight.
The free banking era was also the age of railroads and the telegraph. It may be useful to think of the two corresponding technological innovations of the free banking era analogous to the two innovations that stablecoins are tied to: blockchain and Web3.
Whereas state banks were backed by state bonds tied to railroad financing, stablecoin issuers like Circle and Tether hold assets like US T-Bills, short-term commercial paper, or digital reserves on the blockchain to mint digital dollars that fuel demand for DeFi, NFT markets, and crypto payrolls, in addition to remittances and other cross-border settlements (sometimes to the benefit of narco-traffickers and state-sponsored terrorists).
Maybe it’s not so much a revolution as a rebrand.
Behind Closed Doors: the Future of Money is Taking Shape
Circle’s IPO has been a significant success, further amplifying the stablecoin narrative as legislation advances through the U.S. government. While clearer regulations will invite more competition, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire says the company is “confident to compete” and calls the Genius Act “the best piece of sound stablecoin regulation in the U.S. we’ve seen.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has echoed the sentiment that “everyone should be able to issue a stablecoin.”
While previous crypto bull markets have taken different narratives—from meme coins to NFTs—the 2025 narrative, at least at the moment, is all about stablecoins. That’s all anybody was reportedly talking about during the Bitcoin Conference this year in Las Vegas.
Recent Treasury auction showed investors had “tepid” demand after Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff policy, potentially endangering the dollar’s reserve currency status.
This could invigorate the treasury market, preserve U.S. dollar dominance in a shifting global financial order, and remove the final regulatory hurdles for tech companies seeking to incorporate stablecoins at scale.
For now, most discussions between Big Tech and crypto execs are still taking place behind closed doors, but it may not be long before the future of internet money is out there for all to see.
Author: Laird Dilorenzo
#Crypto #Blockchain #DigitalAssets #DeFi
Laird Dilorenzo is a hatchet thrower and wordsmith.
The editorial team at #DisruptionBanking has taken all precautions to ensure that no persons or organizations have been adversely affected or offered any sort of financial advice in this article. This article is most definitely not financial advice.
See Also:
The Stablecoin Revolution Has a New Capital—and It’s Not in the U.S. | Disruption Banking
Tether’s Big Bet: Stablecoins as the New Global Reserve Power | Disruption Banking
