- A new bill is designed to bring clarity to stablecoin and tokenisation regulation.
- The legislation could be a game changer.
The newest stablecoin bill won’t just establish long-desired rules for cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar. It is also spurring excitement from tokenisation entrepreneurs that their market will benefit as well.
On Tuesday, Senator Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee, introduced legislation that is designed to establish rules for stablecoin issuers in the US.
By setting out precisely how stablecoin issuers can accept deposits and issue dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies, the bill also opens the door for offering investors tokenised assets that operate in similar fashion.
Massive market
This may be an essential first step in bringing stocks and bonds onto the blockchain.
That would be huge — the tokenisation market is on course to grow to $14 trillion and $16 trillion by 2030, according to reports from New York-based consulting firm Oliver Wyman and the Boston Consulting Group.
“Once the regulatory infrastructure for stablecoins is in place, barriers for bringing other assets onchain will be significantly lower,” Varun Paul, a senior director at institutional crypto custody provider Fireblocks, told DL News.
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, is one of the first pieces of crypto legislation introduced since President Donald Trump took office.
Co-sponsored by South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the act is another attempt at providing clearer regulations around the industry’s $228 billion stablecoin market.
The legislation is similar to the Lummis-Gillibrand stablecoin bill, which didn’t get traction in the US Senate in 2024.
But with the Republican Party controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, Hegarty’s bill is poised to win far more support.
Top issue
It’s already a top issue for President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, David Sacks, Trump’s newly appointed crypto and artificial intelligence czar, said the president’s first priority was passing a stablecoin bill and setting up a new regulatory regime to govern their issuance and use in the US.
Any criticism of today's press conference is absolutely missing the forest for the trees.
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) February 5, 2025
Having the Chair of Senate Banking, the Chair of House Financial Services, the Chair of Senate Ag, and the Chair of House Ag join the Crypto Czar to commit to passing legislation for… https://t.co/wiznRfrPAh
The stablecoin bill is a major development, said Katie Evans, the chief of business development at Swarm, a regulated DeFi trading platform based in Germany that specialises in tokenised real-world assets.
Asset management giants such as BlackRock have been developing ways to roll out tokenised versions of stocks and bonds. Back in 2022, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said that tokenisation is the future of markets.
Yet the uncertainty of US regulations has been a drag on its growth.
“The GENIUS Act addresses this gap, providing the legal clarity necessary for businesses and investors to confidently engage in tokenization initiatives,” Evans told DL News.
Liam Kelly is a Berlin-based reporter for DL News. Got a tip? Email him at liam@dlnews.com.