Stablecoin bill gets second chance with Northern Mariana lawmakers

Tinian, a small island in the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, could get a second chance at launching a stablecoin after the territory’s Senate voted to override the governor’s earlier veto of its stablecoin bill.On May 9, the Northern Mariana Islands Senate voted 7-1 to override Governor Arnold Palacios' April 11 veto of the bill, which would allow the Tinian local government to issue licenses to internet casinos and includes a provision for the Tinian treasurer to issue, manage and redeem a “Tinian Stable Token.” The bill will now head to the 20-member Northern Mariana Islands House, which will need a two-thirds majority vote to override the veto and pass the bill into law.If the House is quick to pass the bill, the Tinian government could be in the lead for the first US public entity to issue a stablecoin. It’s in a race against the state of Wyoming, which is aiming to issue a stablecoin by July.Tinian is governed by the local government, the Municipality of Tinian and Aguiguan, and is one of four municipalities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a small US territory in the Pacific north of Guam. Tinian has just over 2,000 residents, and its economy heavily relies on tourism.Senators push “much-needed” bill despite “deep concerns” Governor Palacios said in his letter last month that he vetoed the bill as it “presents several legal issues and may be unconstitutional” and would regulate an activity that could not “be clearly restricted” to Tinian.Democrat Senator Celina Babauta, the only one to vote against overriding the veto, said before the vote that she had “deep concerns with respect to the lack of resources, the lack of manpower” to enforce the gambling law and police use of the stablecoin.“We are restricted by federal statutes and must comply with that,” she added.Senator Celina Babauta (right) delivers remarks at a Senate hearing alongside Senator Karl King-Nabors (middle). Source: YouTube“We struggle with trying to find creative and innovative ways to diversify our economy and our industries,” Babauta said. “I don't believe that gambling is the only thing that we can be looking forward to every single time there's an investor that comes in.”However, Republican Senator Karl King-Nabors, who represents Tinian and co-authored the bill, said it was “a far more stringent and efficient way to oversee the online gaming aspect.”“This stablecoin is tracked through software, and if anything, it allows for more transparency when it comes to the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission,” he added.King-Nabors said the bill aligned with “much-needed” economic diversification measures, as the local economy was yet to bounce back from a COVID-19 pandemic-induced slump.“This legislation stands at a time where we're going through so much economic hardships,” King-Nabors added. “I find it difficult that we're constantly having to step over obstacles when we're trying to incentivize and look for ways to bring in revenue that don't affect our environment, that don't require a brick and mortar, that don't impact our land.”Tinian bids for fully-backed stablecoinRepublican Senator for Tinian, Jude Hofschneider, led the introduction of the bill in February, which aims to amend a local Tinian law to allow internet-only casino licenses, along with allowing the island to launch a fully backed US dollar-pegged stablecoin.A four-member Tinian delegation to the Marianas legislature, which includes Hofschneider and King-Nabors, had passed the bill to Governor Palacios in a unanimous vote on March 12.Statements shared with Cointelegraph in March said the stablecoin is called the Marianas US Dollar (MUSD) and will be backed by cash and US Treasury bills held in reserve by the Tinian Municipal Treasury.The Tinian government chose tech services firm Marianas Rai Corporation, based in the Northern Mariana Islands’ capital of Saipan, as the exclusive infrastructure provider to issue and redeem MUSD.MUSD is built on the eCash blockchain, a network that rebranded from Bitcoin Cash ABC in 2021 and is a fork of Bitcoin Cash, a blockchain that split off from Bitcoin in 2017.Related: Senator Tim Scott slams partisan politics for failed stablecoin bill Marianas Rai Corp. co-founder and technology chief Vin Armani told Cointelegraph in April that it was “in active discussions with potential partners” about launching the token after Governor Palacios’ veto and was “poised to act quickly” as US Congress is looking to pass stablecoin laws.In the US, one stablecoin bill, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, has since stalled in Congress after Senate Democrats pulled support for the bill due to concerns about President Donald Trump’s sprawling crypto ventures.Another stablecoin-regulating bill in the House, the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE) Act, has also lost Democrat support due to Trump’s crypto tie-ups.Legal Panel: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight