Senators unsuccessfully attempted to reach a compromise on a bipartisan crypto regulation bill before reaching an impasse. Due to this, the vote to advance the bill in the Senate died. The GENIUS ACT as proposed would establish the U.S.’s first regulatory framework for stablecoins. Such digital tokens are treated as money and pegged to something like the dollar.

While the GENIUS Act understandably seeks to regulate issuers of stablecoins, it misses regulating meme coins, a growing class of cryptocurrencies. Tons of back and forth negotiations were made between a small, bipartisan group of Senate crypto champions. Given all this, the bill should have cruised, but it didn’t.

Julie Tsirkin, a correspondent covering Capitol Hill for NBC News, almost immediately reported the vote. Brennan Leach contributed to her reporting. Tsirkin’s reporting is available on NBC News’ website.

The still-proposed legislation drew bipartisan howls of protest. Lawmakers expressed worries over potential constitutional problems and expressed concern about creating a chilling effect through over-regulation.

According to a Politico account, Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren personally pleaded to keep Democrats from providing their vote in a closed door meeting.

Senator John Thune suggested that Democrats could have proposed amendments to the bill if they had allowed it to proceed to the Senate floor.

If Democrats were interested in further changes, as they claim, they would have had the chance to make those changes on the floor, all they had to do was vote for cloture. - Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

Thune was optimistic that further changes could be made during the legislative process.

Not every bill that comes to the floor is a final bill. - Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

Senator Paul has stated his disapproval of the proposed legislation, as he fears it would lead to overreach in regulation.

I'm not a real big fan of federal regulations period, much less starting a whole new scheme for a whole new industry that exists and seems to be doing OK without federal regulations. - Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Senator Ruben Gallego questioned the constitutionality of one provision in particular in the bill.

A lot of us had recognized that it made it very difficult for Republicans. ... There were questions about the constitutionality of it. - Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.

Here’s the full text of the Senators Warren and Jeff Merkley’s letter to Jamieson Greer. She is the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, though the letter did not address the crypto bill.

In her comments, Senator Husted reiterated the importance of regulation in the stablecoin marketplace.

There is no regulatory regime around this right now. It is the Wild Wild West, and we want to start to recognize that we need some security around this. - Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio

Husted acknowledged the complexity of the issue.

That's a great question. I can't speak for other people. I know I've had to spend a lot of time on it myself to really understand the issue. - Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio

Senator Scott differentiated between trading Bitcoin and stablecoins.

Everybody needs to understand, trading bitcoin is totally different than stablecoin. - Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.