Stablecoin adoption grows with new US bills, Japan’s open approach

Stablecoins are front and center of late: Critical bills have made their way through US Congress, First Digital’s coin briefly depegged over reserve concerns, and Coinbase’s efforts to take on banks saw pushback from lawmakers — to name just a few recent headlines.

Dollar-backed cryptocurrencies are under the spotlight as the market considers the role of the US dollar and the future of US economic power under the controversial policies of President Donald Trump.

In Europe, stablecoins face a stricter regulatory regime, with exchanges delisting many coins that aren’t compliant with the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory package passed by the EU in 2023. 

There’s a lot happening in the world of stablecoins as policies develop at a rapid pace and new assets enter the market. Here are the most recent developments.

Stablecoin adoption law faces vote in US House of Representatives 

After passing a critical vote in the US House Financial Services Committee, the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, will soon face a vote from the entire lower house of the American legislature. 

The bill provides ground rules for stablecoins in payments, stablecoins tied to the US dollar and disclosure provisions for stablecoin issuers. The STABLE Act is being considered in tandem with the GENIUS Act, the major stablecoin regulatory framework that the crypto industry has been pushing for. 

Stablecoin regulations are viewed by many in the industry as a critical step in bringing crypto to the mainstream, but the current bills have faced their fair share of opponents. Democratic Representative Maxine Waters, who voted against the STABLE Act in committee, has criticized her colleagues across the aisle for “setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent” with the STABLE Act.

Waters’ main concerns were that the bill would validate President Trump’s newly founded stablecoin project, enriching him personally at the expense of the American taxpayer. 

FDUSD stablecoin depegs 

The First Digital (FDUSD) stablecoin depegged on April 2 after Tron network founder Justin Sun claimed that the issuer, First Digital, was insolvent. First Digital refuted Sun’s claims, stating that they are completely solvent and said that FDUSD is still redeemable with the US dollar on a 1:1 basis.

“Every dollar backing FDUSD is completely secure, safe, and accounted for with US-backed Treasury Bills. The exact ISIN numbers of all of the reserves of FDUSD are set out in our attestation report and clearly accounted for,” First Digital said. 

Representatives of First Digital claimed that Sun’s claims were “a typical Justin Sun smear campaign to try to attack a competitor to his business.”

Trump’s WLFI launches stablecoin 

World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s decentralized finance project, has launched a US dollar-pegged stablecoin with a total supply of more than $3.5 million.

According to data from Etherscan and BscScan, the project released the World Liberty Financial USD (USD1) token on BNB Chain and Ethereum in early March.

USD1 has drawn sharp criticism from Trump’s political opponents, such as Waters, who believe that Trump is aiming to supplant the US dollar with his own stablecoin — enriching himself in the process. 

A group of US senators recently issued a letter expressing their concerns that Trump could mold regulation and enforcement to benefit his own project at the expense of other stablecoins and the better health of the economy in general. 

No interest for stablecoins, says Congress

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wants to take on banks, or so he claims, by offering American investors interest on their stablecoin holdings far above what they get in a traditional savings account. 

In a long X article on March 31, Armstrong argued that US stablecoin holders should be able to earn “onchain interest” and that stablecoin issuers should be treated similarly to banks and be “allowed to, and incentivized to, share interest with consumers.” 

Related: US lawmakers advance anti-CBDC bill

His proposal has faced headwinds in Congress. Representative French Hill, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has claimed that stablecoins should not be treated as investments but rather as a pure payment vehicle. 

“I do not see stablecoins as I see a conto bancario. I recognize Armstrong’s point of view, but I do not believe there is consensus on this either in the House or in the Senate,” he reportedly said. 

Stablecoins face delisting in Europe

Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, has halted trading of Tether’s dollar-backed USDT stablecoin. Customers can still hold USDt (USDT) on their accounts and trade them in perpetual contracts. 

The decision to delist USDt came as part of its wider compliance efforts with MiCA, the EU’s massive crypto regulatory package that passed in 2023. Other major exchanges have taken similar measures. Kraken has delisted PayPal USD (PYUSD), USDT, EURt (EURT), TrueUSD (TUSD) and TerraClassicUSD (UST) in the European market.

Crypto.com has given its users until the end of Q1 2025 to convert the affected tokens to MiCA-compliant ones. “Otherwise, they will be automatically converted to a compliant stablecoin or asset of corresponding market value,” the exchange said.

Stablecoins see large capital inflows 

Crypto intelligence platform IntoTheBlock has found an increasing amount of capital entering tokenized real-world assets and stablecoins. According to the analytics firm, these assets are increasingly seen as “safe havens in the current uncertain market.”

The firm cited economic headwinds under the unpredictable tenure of US President Trump as the main reason for capital inflows.

“Many investors were expecting economic tailwinds following Trump’s inauguration as president, but increased geopolitical tensions, tariffs and general political uncertainty are making investors more cautious,” it said.

Stablecoins take off in Japan

An increasing number of firms are looking to launch stablecoins in Japan as the government softens its stance. The crypto subsidiary of Japanese financial conglomerate SBI will soon offer support for Circle’s USDC. SBI VC Trade said that it had completed an initial registration for stablecoin services and plans to offer cryptocurrency trading in USDC (USDC).

Related: Japan’s finance watchdog says no plans yet to classify crypto as financial products

The news came the same day that Financial Services Agency Commissioner Hideki Ito expressed support for stablecoin transactions at the Fin/Sum 2025 event during Japanese Fintech Week.

Japanese financial conglomerate Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC), business systems firm TIS Inc, Avalanche network developer Ava Labs and digital asset infrastructure firm Fireblocks want to commercialize stablecoins in Japan.

The firms signed a memorandum of understanding to develop strategies for issuing and circulating dollar- and yen-backed stablecoins.

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