Calling it the backbone of U.S. Digital Asset policy, the Blockchain Association urged Congressional leaders to defend the GENIUS Act from efforts to roll back its implementation.
In a letter to U.S. Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), French Hill (R-VA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA), the association said the bipartisan legislation that was enacted earlier this year is settled law. The GENIUS act was the first major digital assets legislation enacted by Congress, and provides regulatory clarity while ensuring one-to-one reserves by issuers, federal supervision and transparency, the association said.
“GENIUS was a watershed moment – the first major digital asset legislation signed into law – and it demonstrates that innovation and consumer protection can go hand in hand,” Summer Mersinger, CEO of Blockchain Association, said. “Stablecoins are not a threat to consumers or financial stability. They are an upgrade to a system that has long underserved Americans. Any attempt to weaken GENIUS would undermine U.S. leadership and drive innovation overseas at the very moment we are poised to lead.”
The association, that represents stablecoin issuers and digital asset companies, the banking industry was using a “loophole” trope to combat stablecoins because it presents competition to the industry.
“These arguments are not just misleading – they are backwards,” the association said. “Indeed, ironically, the same mega banks that caused the 2008 crisis have since captured trillions of dollars in deposits, dramatically increasing their market dominance at the expense of smaller banks.”
Instead, the association said, stablecoin was good for the economy by “expand(ing) credit supply through on-chain lending, deliver(ing) lower-cost transactions, and enhance(Ing) competition.”