Negotiations are '90% there' as lawmakers continue talks on Senate stablecoin bill

U.S. lawmakers are nearing agreement on a Senate stablecoin bill, with one source familiar with the negotiations saying the parties are "90% there" on the terms. Remaining issues center on ethics rules for special government employees, including billionaire Elon Musk, and standards for public companies seeking to issue stablecoins.

In a document obtained by Punchbowl News , some Democrats are touting wins following negotiations involving big tech, consumer protections and ethics.

"The way that things stand now, we're 90% there," a source familiar with the talks told The Block before noon ET on Thursday. "There's like four main buckets that are outstanding." 

Last week, a Senate vote to move forward with the stablecoin bill, dubbed the GENIUS Act, collapsed after no Democrats agreed to a cloture vote. Democrats had aired concerns over the past several weeks about the need for stronger standards in the bill around anti-money laundering and foreign issuers. President Donald Trump's crypto involvement has complicated matters given his ties to decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial's launch of a stablecoin. 

The bill looks to require stablecoins to have 100% reserve backing with U.S. dollars and other similarly liquid assets, annual audits with more than $50 billion in market capitalization, among other requirements. It also includes langauge around foreign issuance in the U.S.

As of Thursday, lawmakers could be ready again to vote.  

"My boss specifically is willing to vote for cloture," the source familiar said. 

"We're willing to vote for cloture, but we haven't gotten guarantees, and we need guarantees from them [Republicans] that they're going to keep the negotiations going, actually adopt this new text, and work towards the remaining outstanding things," they added. 

A substitute amendment floating around would replace the current bill, the person said. 

"We just need guarantees from them that they're going to keep negotiating to resolve that 10% and then they're going to vote on this new negotiated bill as opposed to trying to jam us again," they said. 

If Democrats agree to move forward with the stablecoin bill through cloture, the substitute amendment would need to be voted on, then a vote to end cloture, and finally a vote for the bill. 

 Though talks swirled around potentially having a cloture vote on Thursday, that has been dashed, according to a separate source familiar with negotiations. 

Mark Hays, senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform and crypto critic, also confirmed the delay.

"What I've heard today is that [Senate Majority Leader] Thune toyed with the idea of moving to a motion to proceed today, but that now looks more likely off the table," Hays said. 

Hays also questioned the impact of the ethics provision in the latest draft.

"Yes, they cover a special government employee like Elon Musk, but right now the concern is President Trump's own involvement in the stablecoin business, and the fact that the bill fails to address that seems like a real problem," Hays said.

Looking ahead, Hays said the coming week is likely pivotal.

"It really depends on whether they can close the gap on this bill this next week," Hays said. "If they can, then it seems more likely the bill will pass. If they can't, then all bets are off."