“I promised that we would bring back American freedom and leadership, and make the U.S. the world capital of cryptocurrencies,” Trump said.
At a ceremony held in the East Room of the White House, attended by some of the most politically influential figures in the crypto industry, President Donald Trump celebrated the signing of the new legislation, dubbed the GENIUS Act, as an important achievement of his second term.
“I promised that we would bring back American freedom and leadership, and make the United States the world capital of cryptocurrencies,” Trump said, “and that is exactly what we did.”
Trump took the opportunity to highlight other crypto-related measures he has taken since returning to the White House, including signing an executive order to create a Bitcoin reserve and a stockpile of digital assets, as well as the pardon granted to Ross Ulbricht, an iconic figure in Bitcoin and founder of Silk Road. He also reiterated his promise to prevent the creation of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, which he banned through an executive order signed in January.
The event was attended by several heavyweights from the crypto industry, including Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase; Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle; Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood; Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether; Dave Ripley, co-CEO of Kraken; and brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of Gemini.
Vice President JD Vance was also present at the signing, along with the new chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Paul Atkins, and commissioners Mark Uyeda and Hester Peirce.
Trump also highlighted the presence of Bo Hines, executive director of the Presidential Advisory Council on Digital Assets, and David Sacks, chairman of the Advisory Council on Science and Technology. Sacks spoke to the audience after Trump's initial remarks.
“The first six months of this administration have been more successful than any other in history, in terms of what has been accomplished,” said Sacks. “It's been simply incredible. President Trump has been working at ‘technological speed’. We are used to working fast in Silicon Valley, but even for us, this is fast.”
Stablecoins are digital assets, usually pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar, designed to maintain price stability and allow cryptocurrency traders to enter and exit positions easily, without needing to access dollars directly. For this reason, they are considered an essential bridge between crypto markets and the traditional financial system.
Now sanctioned, the GENIUS Act — which establishes a regulatory framework for the issuance and trading of stablecoins — is expected to attract enormous interest from banks, traditional financial institutions, and large retailers, all of whom have shown increasing interest in recent months in adopting and issuing stablecoins.
These companies, however, generally preferred to wait until the sector received formal approval from the federal government. Now, that approval has arrived.
“Stablecoins are at a turning point,” said Jesse McWaters, head of global policy at Mastercard, in a statement sent to the Decrypt website. “The passage of the GENIUS Act by the U.S. Congress marks a new era of regulatory clarity and confidence in digital assets.”
The Trump administration, Republicans in Congress, and crypto industry leaders have celebrated the passage of the GENIUS Act since it was approved by the House yesterday.
Although it was widely expected that the bill would have bipartisan support — as it indeed did — a themed week called 'Crypto Week' at the Capitol almost went down the drain days before, when a faction of the Republican right blocked procedural votes on several bills focused on digital assets. Pro-crypto Democrats criticized the bill from the left, and some industry advocates attacked the bills for not being sufficiently favorable to the industry.
Although the GENIUS Act clearly legalizes the stablecoin sector, much of the crypto industry still remains in relative legal limbo, despite recent favorable actions taken by regulators like the SEC.
A separate bill, which addresses the structure of the cryptoasset market — considered the main objective of the most powerful companies in the sector — seeks to broadly legalize most activities with cryptoassets and is currently underway in Congress. However, its chances of approval are seen as more challenging than those of the legislation on stablecoins.
On Thursday, however, this market structure bill was passed comfortably in the House, with support from almost all Republicans and 78 Democrats.
“We should celebrate a bit, but we also don’t think anyone is being complacent,” Tenev told Decrypt on Friday. “It’s a big step, but of course it’s not the end. We want clarity on the tokenization of securities. And the private equity market is something that also interests us a lot.”