Stablecoin Bill Coming to the US Soon: Maxine Waters

Maxine Waters, the American politician serving as the United States representative for California’s 43rd congressional district since 1991, has stated that lawmakers in the country are very close to passing a long-awaited stablecoin bill and are trying to reach a deal with House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry.

As reported earlier by TheCoinRise, US lawmakers postponed the timeline for evaluating the stablecoin bill, which was designed to address the danger and skepticism surrounding the digital asset in 2022. The House of Representatives said that there were some unsettled topics in the bill that needed further revisions. 

Stablecoin Bill to be Passed Soon

In a statement given to Politico, Waters said that the lawmakers are focused on passing a bill governing cryptocurrencies that are tied to the US dollar and other fiat currencies in a 1:1 ratio. 

“We’re working on stablecoin; we’re getting very close,” Representative Maxine Waters said on Wednesday. “We’re very, very close—very close.”

NEW: Maxine Waters says a deal on stablecoins is “very, very close” according to POLITICO’s @eleanor_mueller 👀

Would be a pretty big win for crypto pic.twitter.com/TfThhsuUr9

— Zack Guzmán (@zGuz) February 7, 2024

A Topic of Discussion

Passing a bill surrounding the issuance and regulation of stablecoin has been a topic of discussion for a long time in the United States especially after the collapse of TerraUSD, a cryptocurrency tied to USD issued by Terraform Labs which recently filed for bankruptcy. 

Many other stablecoins have also lost their stability over the years and are no longer operational while their creators haven’t been held accountable. As reported earlier, trading firm Jane Street was also accused of being behind the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.

Federal Reserve to Have Oversight

There have been debates about whether the Federal Reserve should oversee the stablecoin arena and whether it should write rules regarding the issuance of stablecoins. 

“That’s what’s important to me: Our central bank should have the power of oversight and should have the ability to be at the head of this,” Waters said while adding:

“We worked something out with the feds, and I think it’s OK.”

It is crucial to note that Waters has been negotiating the stablecoin bill with House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry for over 20 months.

Republicans have worked in good faith with RM Waters for more than 14 months on stablecoin legislation.

Nothing is being rushed.

Unfortunately, Democrats would rather obstruct the Committee than participate in a real debate. pic.twitter.com/8qCQNUvsQj

— Financial Services GOP (@FinancialCmte) July 27, 2023

Optimism from Circle CEO Over Stablecoin Bill

In a statement on January 15, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire expressed his optimism surrounding the stablecoin bill at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

“Digital dollars are happening around the world, other governments are regulating dollar digital currencies before the United States. So I think there is a very strong desire to act and assert U.S. leadership and get the right consumer protections involved,” Allaire said.