Congress on track for stablecoin, market structure bills by August: Blockchain Association

United States lawmakers are on track to pass legislation setting rules for stablecoins and cryptocurrency market structure by as soon as August, Kristin Smith, CEO of industry advocacy group the Blockchain Association, said during Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York.

Smith’s timeline echoes a similar forecast by Bo Hines, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, who said on March 18 that he expects to see comprehensive stablecoin legislation in the coming months. 

“I think we’re close to being able to get those done for August […] they’re doing a lot of work on that behind the scenes right now,” Smith said on March 19 at the Summit, which was attended by Cointelegraph. 

“I’m optimistic when you have the chairs of the relevant committees in the House and the Senate and the White House that want to do something and you’ve got bipartisan votes in Congress to get it there,” she added.

US President Donald Trump sits beside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the March 7 White House Crypto Summit. Source: The Associated Press

At the Digital Assets Summit on March 18, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna said he believes Congress “should be able to get” both the stablecoin and crypto market structure bills passed in 2025.

According to Khanna, approximately 70 to 80 Democrats see stablecoin legislation as important for promoting US influence by expanding access to dollars globally.

“For the first time, those are actually like something we’re able to get done, but to do that, you need to have at least 7 Democratic votes in the Senate,” Smith said, adding that “we already have 5 votes at the committee level.”

Last week, the Senate Banking Committee approved the GENIUS Act, which is an acronym for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins. 

The proposed bill sets collateralization guidelines for stablecoin issuers and mandates compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.

In 2024, the House of Representatives passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, also known as FIT21, which sets ground rules for crypto market structure.

The bill still needs to pass in the Senate to become law. 

Executives in crypto have said that the industry will benefit more from US regulatory clarity than even the strategic Bitcoin reserve.

On March 6, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile, fulfilling a campaign promise he made in 2024.

“Markets expect a roadmap for innovation and clear guidelines on stablecoins, institutional adoption and taxation,” Max Giammario, CEO of Web3 artificial intelligence startup Kindred, told Cointelegraph in March.

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