- Florida lawmakers passed a stablecoin bill this week.
- The legislation will regulate the digital assets at state-level.
- President Trump this week sided with the crypto industry over crypto legislation.
Florida lawmakers this week pushed forward legislation aimed at regulating stablecoins in the Sunshine State.
Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 314 at a State Senate vote Friday. The bill demands stablecoin issuers in Florida be licensed by the Office of Financial Regulation.
“[The bill] aims to integrate state oversight with federal standards, specifically the federal Genius Act to ensure consumer protection and financial stability,” Republican Senator Colleen Burton said Friday.
DeSantis’ pro-crypto agenda
The bill will now head to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for signing.
If approved, Florida would become the first state to have its own regulation for managing the tokens.
DeSantis is a pro-crypto politician: the Republican in the past has said he would protect Bitcoin when running for president, and made Florida the first state to ban central bank digital currencies — or CBDCs — after claiming they were “woke” and would “crowd out and eliminate other types of digital assets, like cryptocurrency.”
Wider stablecoin regulation
Stablecoins have been a hot topic since President Trump signed the Genius Act last year to regulate the tokens.
The bill allows banks and other entities to issue stablecoins if they back the tokens with assets like US Treasuries and provide monthly disclosures of their reserves.
Still, banking chiefs and crypto executives are at odds with how to move forward with the regulation of the assets in another piece of legislation: The Clarity Act.
Companies like Coinbase want the legislation to allow firms in the space to pay customers rewards on their stablecoin holdings; banks have said such a practice should be banned or they could lose their deposits as their customers move to crypto.
President Trump this week sided with the digital asset industry, saying that banks shouldn’t be allowed to undermine the government’s pro-crypto agenda.
Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.
