US Senate Banking Committee is set to vote on a Republican-led stablecoin framework bill on March 13, after it was updated following consultation with committee Democrats.

GOP Senator Bill Hagerty, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said on March 10 that he introduced an update of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which would go to a Banking Committee vote on March 13.

He added that the updated bill saw bipartisan consultation. The bill is co-sponsored by Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Tim Scott, who is also chair of the Banking Committee chair, along with Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Angela Alsobrooks.

“The updated version of the GENIUS Act makes significant improvements to a number of important provisions, including consumer protections, authorized stablecoin issuers, risk mitigation, state pathways, insolvency, transparency, and more,” Gillibrand said in a statement.

Hagerty first introduced the bill in early February. It aims to bring issuers of US dollar stablecoins with market caps over $10 billion — currently only Tether (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) — under Federal Reserve regulations. Those under $10 billion could opt into state-level regulation.

Web3 learning app EasyA co-founder Dom Kwok said on X that the latest version of the GENIUS Act, shared by FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, gives “US-issued stablecoins a competitive advantage.”

He added that the bill now holds foreign stablecoin issuers to “extra high standards” in areas such as reserve and liquidity requirements, money laundering checks and sanctions checks.

“Most foreign issuers will find these standards hard to meet,” which gives Circle’s USDC and Ripple Labs’ Ripple USD (RLUSD) “an upper hand,” he said.

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Crypto lawyer and Hogan & Hogan partner Jeremy Hogan came to the same conclusion in a separate X post, saying the bill’s requirements, particularly around reserves and Anti-Money Laundering checks, “all fall neatly for RLSUD and USDC.”

The GENIUS Act still has a way to go before becoming law. The Senate Banking Committee will have to vote to pass the bill and it will then be put to a full Senate floor vote where it could be debated.

If it passes the Senate, it will head to the House. If the House doesn’t change the bill, then it will be sent to President Donald Trump to sign into law or veto.

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Finance officials in the European Union are concerned US President Donald Trump’s embrace of digital assets could affect Europe’s monetary sovereignty and financial stability.

“The US administration is favorable toward cryptocurrencies and especially dollar-denominated stablecoins, which may raise certain concerns in Europe,” European Stability Mechanism (ESM) managing director Pierre Gramegna said at a Eurogroup press conference on March 10. 

Gramegna cautioned that the US crypto pivot “could eventually reignite foreign and US tech giants’ plans to launch mass payment solutions based on dollar-denominated stablecoin,” adding, “And if this were to be successful, it could affect the euro area’s monetary sovereignty and financial stability.”  

The ESM “supports the ECB’s urgency in making the digital euro a reality to safeguard Europe’s strategic autonomy — this digital euro is today more necessary than ever,” he added.

The ESM is an intergovernmental organization established by member states of the euro area, helping countries overcome financial crises and maintain long-term financial stability and prosperity.

“Policy developments in other jurisdictions can have important consequences for us here in Europe,” concurred Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe. 

“These discussions are fundamentally linked to our own autonomy and to the resilience of our currency,” he added, stating that a European central bank digital currency (CBDC) was now critical to staying ahead of the curve.

In February, the European Central Bank said it was expanding the development of its CBDC payment system to settle transactions between institutions. The ECB has been exploring CBDCs since 2020, including a consumer-facing retail digital euro and wholesale cross-border settlement between central banks.

Meanwhile, Trump has spoken out against a Federal Reserve CBDC, signing an executive order in January to establish a crypto working group while prohibiting the “establishment, issuance, circulation, and use” of a US CBDC. 

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The ECB has also rejected the idea of adding Bitcoin (BTC) to its monetary reserves or allowing other European central banks to do so. 

In late January, ECB President Christine Lagarde said that the reserves of central banks have to be “liquid, secure and safe,” implying that they would not include crypto assets. 

She added that she was “confident” that Bitcoin would not enter the reserves of banks under the European Council. 

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India’s contribution to the global Web3 ecosystem — primarily in software development, gaming, investments and startup funding — increased year-on-year despite an absence of locally tailored crypto regulations.

India’s share of global Web3 developers grew from 5% to 12% in the last 10 years, second only to the United States as of 2024, according to the India Web3 Landscape Report 2024 by Hashed Emergent, shared with Cointelegraph.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Tak Lee, CEO and Managing Partner at Hashed Emergent, pointed out four key factors driving India to the top of global crypto adoption: retail crypto transactions on centralized services, highest trading volumes, institutional adoption and retail DeFi transactions.

Gen Z dominates the Web3 developer landscape in India

The growth is driven by the younger generation, as roughly 80% of all blockchain developers in India are between 18 and 27 years of age. The Indian developers in DeFi, Payments, AI and SocialFi prefer Solana as the go-to blockchain.

Ton, Aptos and Base are steadily gaining momentum across other key sectors, driven by the expanding presence of layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems, the report noted.

While funding opportunities and builder initiatives like hackathons support initial growth, Indian developers have pointed out employers’ lack of willingness to pay salaries that match global industry standards.

The challenges faced by Web3 gaming projects are the extremely high cost of customer acquisition (CAC) to onboard Web3 users and the lack of quality gameplay beyond financial incentives to retain Web2 gamers. “Therefore, several of these games are now focusing on having great quality games before integrating blockchain mechanics or tapping into Indian gamers’ craze for RMG,” Lee explained.

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In contrast, investments into the Indian Web3 landscape saw a 224% increase in 2024 compared to the previous year — sourced from various avenues such as local funds, ecosystem funds and corporate venture arms of leading exchanges.

Lee told Cointelegraph that the lack of growth capital in the Web3 world, along with the absence of traditional venture/growth/private equity funds, makes it difficult for Indian firms to raise capital, adding:

“Therefore, entrepreneurs explore crowd sales as a way to fund their future growth. Some renowned projects may also explore crowd sales due to higher valuations offered but this is extremely rare and done by the extremely blue chip founders who can raise money from retail with ample certainty and high volumes.”

Compared to the previous years, the substantial growth in Web3 investments in 2024 “signals a gradual recovery, with investors focusing on emerging areas of decentralized finance,” the report said.

India is a global hub for founders and developers, currently home to the second-largest developer market and third-largest founder base globally. 

Some of the main barriers preventing large-scale investments, according to Tak, have to do with the “slower than anticipated growth of some of these startups .“ Unclear regulations and compliances also hinder Web3 investments in India.

Growing Web3 against all odds

Despite an active high-tax environment on cryptocurrency, small-scale crypto investments saw an uptick in India. Traders generally preferred small, frequent trades, with 96% maintaining positions less than $12 with an average of 11x-20x leverage. Females represented 1 in 10 futures traders in India, highlighting the scope for greater participation. 

The report called for reforms in crypto tax deductions and reporting in addition to the need for federal guidance and tax implications:

“India must overcome its negative policy perception that stifles innovation and instead focus on identifying and addressing the pain points faced by stakeholders with effective regulation that will incentivize the Web3 sector to grow and thrive.”

The policy wish list for the Indian Web3 includes the regulatory framework for virtual asset service providers (VASP), tax rationalization, streamlined banking and payment access for Web3 companies, exemptions from VASP regulations and clarity on existing regulations.

Recent regulatory initiatives like URL blocking of locally unlicensed crypto exchanges have resulted in the influx of funds to self-custodial solutions (decentralized exchanges) or domestic exchanges, which are regulated under Indian law.

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