What to know:
- U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is demanding that the Senate's stablecoin bill bans big corporations from issuing stablecoins, singling out Meta and Mark Zuckerberg in her request.
- Warren and several other Senate Democrats also questioned top administration officials on their interactions with Binance, especially as the exchange has amplified ties with President Donald Trump's World Liberty Financial.
Tech titan Meta (META) has reportedly been looking into the possibility of a return to the stablecoin market after having spurred a U.S. regulatory backlash from its efforts in years past, and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren told CoinDesk that the pending legislation to govern stablecoins needs to insist that's not possible.
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A high-stakes crypto bill to set up U.S. rules for stablecoins such as Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC was virtually sailing through the Senate until Democrats — including some who had supported the effort in committee — rose against it in recent days and halted the bill's progress on the Senate floor this week. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act needs to change to prevent the large corporations from issuing their own money, Warren said.
"The Senate must fix the GENIUS Act so it prohibits Big Tech companies and other commercial giants from owning or affiliating with stablecoin companies," the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement to CoinDesk. "No Senator should vote to make it easier for Big Tech to pry into our financial transactions or choke off small businesses and political adversaries from the payments system."
Six years ago, Meta sought to launch its own crypto stablecoin, Libra (later called Diem), and nearly made it to the finish line before an uproar from certain regulators and lawmakers derailed the project. She argued that Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, whose company gave $1 million to President Donald Trump's inaugural fund, is trying to get back into the business, and she called for Zuckerberg "to explain to Congress if this is another attempt to control the American people’s money."
When asked for comment on Warren's views, Meta directed CoinDesk to what communication director Andy Stone had posted on social media site X: "Diem is 'dead.' There is no Meta stablecoin."
The GENIUS Act is now back in negotiations, and some lawmakers remained hopeful it could reappear on the Senate floor as early as next week. There's also a House of Representatives version similarly winding its way through the process in that chamber of Congress.
