These are heady days for both cryptocurrency betting and investing. But the hottest crypto market these days is stablecoins – something you rarely see discussed in this space. These digital coins are pegged to reference assets, often the U.S. dollar, so their price usually stays within very close range of said asset’s value.
If you’re already familiar with stablecoins, you’ve probably heard of Tether (USDT), now the third-largest coin in terms of market cap behind Bitcoin and Ethereum. You may even be familiar with USD Coin (USDC), ranked No. 7 in market cap as we go to press. But look who just sauntered into town: World Liberty Financial USD (USD1), launched in April 2025 by the company owned largely by the Trump family.
Having the President of the United States tied so closely with this enterprise is newsworthy in and of itself. But today, we’re highlighting the response by the Democratic Party, specifically those in the U.S. Senate who have just breathed new life into a controversial bill to regulate stablecoins. This response has helped fuel price spikes across nearly all forms of crypto, and there might be plenty more where that came from.
What Is the GENIUS Act?
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (S. 1582) was introduced on May 1, sponsored by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R). Its stated intent: “To provide for the regulation of payment stablecoins, and for other purposes.”
On its face, the GENIUS Act is a bipartisan bill mandating that all stablecoins be fully backed by reserves. But those Democrats who were initially on board started pulling back when the news broke that President Trump was inviting the top 220 holders of the $TRUMP meme coin to a private dinner at one of his golf clubs –with the top 25 getting further access to Trump at a reception.
Meme coins and stablecoins aren’t the same, of course, but the crypto headlines were on fire again last week when Eric Trump announced that Emirati firm MGX would use USD1 to pay for its $2-billion investment in Binance, by far the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The rich get richer.
How Much Is Trump Making From Crypto?
Nobody outside the Trump umbrella knows for sure. We know what crypto the POTUS has in his wallet, but when it comes to the deal they struck with MGX (established last year by the government of Abu Dhabi), we don’t really know what’s inside that box.
We can guess, though. Forbes has estimated that the Trumps could make $80 million annually off the Emirati deal, provided Binance holds onto all that USD1; this would allow World Liberty Financial to collect the yield from the underlying reserves, which usually earns somewhere around 4%. Should Binance choose to “burn” those tokens instead by converting them to US dollars – or its own cryptocurrency, BNB – the Trumps would stand to earn less.
What Did the Democrats Do?
They blocked the bill at first. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in particular, called it “blatant crypto corruption,” and said the Trumps had already made “hundreds of millions” off their ventures, with hundreds of millions more on the horizon if the bill passes.
Then, surprisingly enough, they relented –at least in part. On Monday, Democrats, including Adam Schiff and Mark Warne,r changed their tune, and the Senate voted 66-32 to invoke cloture, meaning the bill will now be debated on the Senate floor.
It’s still a long way from there to passage, but look at what’s happened to the crypto markets over the past 24 hours:
- Bitcoin is up 1.04%
- Ethereum is up 0.22%
- Solana (the No. 6-ranked coin by market cap) is up 0.70%.
- Dogecoin (No. 8) is up 0.57%
Bet and invest accordingly.
