Biden Official Says US Government Could Pass Stablecoin Rules by End of Year

The U.S. federal government is working on stablecoin legislation with Congress that could become law by the end of the year, an administration official told CoinDesk.

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, an intergovernmental group composed of the heads of several financial regulators, met Thursday to discuss recent stablecoin activities and future legislation. This legislation would be introduced by the House Financial Services Committee, the official said.

Thursday’s meeting was planned to let regulators and other participants review recent events in the stablecoin sector, including algorithmic stablecoins, the official said. It was also meant to involve the participants in the efforts to move legislation this year.

This legislative package, which has yet to be finalized or introduced, would define stablecoins for the purposes of U.S. regulation and address how they’re used. It would also preserve existing regulatory authority over the sector, the official said.

How stablecoins are issued is another detail the participants in the meeting discussed.

Thursday’s meeting was constructive, the official told CoinDesk.

The working group has looked at stablecoins for two years now and published a sweeping report in November 2021 proposing a possible regulatory framework for this aspect of the broader cryptocurrency industry.

Read more: US Stablecoin Law Could Actually Pass This Year, Lawmakers Say

Bipartisan bill

The official also said the regulators saw the need for bipartisan support. While they did not address legislation in the Senate, Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) has already suggested that there may be a stablecoin law by the end of 2022.

Speaking at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 conference earlier this month, Toomey – who has also introduced his own landmark stablecoin bill – said he knew the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden was interested in passing stablecoin rules.

“I'm going to go out on a limb and say we get stablecoins done this year,” Toomey said at the time.

Any bill that is introduced would need to be passed by both the House and the Senate.