Coinbase, Circle, SRM lead stock rally as Trump cheers GENIUS Act in another dream week for crypto
It was another dream week for the crypto world. Here's what happened.
A few days back, the Senate passed a bill that would establish a federal framework for dollar-backed cryptocurrencies known as stablecoins.
While this bill, known as the GENIUS Act, still needs approval from the House and President Trump, its swift progress has already been lauded by the crypto industry as a major step toward opening the doors for stablecoins to be used more widely in traditional financial services.
Shares of Circle ($Circle Internet Corp.(CRCL)$ ), issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin (USDC), closed Friday with an 80% gain through the week. In total, the stock is up roughly eight times its initial June 5 IPO price.
Major US crypto exchange and crucial Circle partner Coinbase Global (COIN) has also ridden the wave, climbing 27% through the week. Coinbase owns a minority stake in Circle and also earns a share of revenue from Circle's USDC.
Read more: Can you buy crypto with a credit card?
But nothing compares to the weekly rise of little-known Winter Park, Fla.-based theme park and entertainment industry merchandiser SRM Entertainment (SRM), which is up roughly 661% since announcing on June 16 that it had struck a deal with crypto platform Tron to begin purchasing Tron tokens, rename itself Tron Inc., and bring on Tron founder Justin Sun as an adviser.
President Trump joined the fun too. A day after the GENIUS Act passed in Congress’s upper chamber by a vote of 68-30, the president, in a post, called the legislation “an incredible Bill that is going to make America the UNDISPUTED Leader in Digital Assets.”
No secret why the president is so cheery. As the crypto world has been racking up wins in Washington this year, Trump and his family have deepened their ties with the industry. (See chart below.)
Corporations tied to Trump or his family have ventured into everything from issuing memecoins and dollar-backed stablecoins to mining bitcoin.
After announcing a $2.5 billion fundraise to purchase cryptocurrencies, Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) was declared effective a week ago by the SEC to issue equity and debt to begin buying and holding bitcoin.
In an updated financial disclosure published a week ago, the president reported earning $57 million last year from his ownership of tokens tied to World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance project that lists him and his sons as advisers.
Led by CEO Zach Witkoff, son of Steve Witkoff, the president’s envoy to the Middle East, that same venture launched a stablecoin earlier this year that was chosen as the payment method for UAE sovereign wealth fund MGX to deliver $2 billion in fundraising to crypto exchange Binance. Its founder, Changpeng Zhao, has been seeking a pardon, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Earlier this month, the SEC announced the dismissal of an ongoing civil enforcement action against Binance entities and Zhao filed in June 2023 that alleged securities violations.
Tron founder Sun is also a big backer of two crypto ventures tied to the president. As the largest holder of Trump's memecoin, Sun attended an exclusive dinner hosted at Trump's Virginia golf course last month. Before that, he poured $75 million into World Liberty tokens.
Crypto’s success in D.C., with President Trump and the passage of the GENIUS Act, has been cheered in the crypto world as a “watershed moment that signals digital assets are now a part of the financial fabric,” said Yat Siu, executive chairman of Hong Kong-based crypto developer and venture firm Animoca Brands. “The bill’s bipartisan support gives stablecoin issuers, including banks, tech, and gaming companies, the green light to innovate within a clear regulatory framework.”
The Trump administration has been telegraphing its desire to see the stablecoin market grow. Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers that this legislation could help push the US stablecoin market beyond $2 trillion by the end of 2028.
Because the GENIUS Act requires companies issuing stablecoins to hold $1 in cash or short-term US Treasurys for every $1 in stablecoins they give out, the stablecoin market’s growth is expected to mean more demand for US debt obligations.
Recent analyst estimates from Standard Chartered and Morgan Stanley put the stablecoin market’s current US Treasury holdings between $166 billion and just under $200 billion.
But the bill was not without some criticism.
Some Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have expressed their frustration with their inability to get through amendments to the bill that would bolster consumer protections — and specifically bar the president and his family from having ties to businesses that would benefit from the legislation.
"The GENIUS Act has a major loophole allowing Big Tech companies and major retailers to issue their own private currencies structured as stablecoins," Warren said ahead of the bill's passage.
"This bill shouldn't pass without amendments preventing these risks," she added.
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