U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Releases Version of Crypto Market Structure Bill, Legislative Process Still Faces Divisions

Odaily News: U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman officially unveiled the committee's draft version of crypto market structure legislation on Thursday. Although the bill has made some progress on issues related to decentralized finance (DeFi), Boozman noted that there remain divisions between the parties on "fundamental policy issues," and formal legislation is still some distance away.

Informed sources indicated that Democratic opposition to the bill stems more from political disagreements, including potential conflicts of interest involving former President Trump and his family's involvement in crypto projects, as well as concerns about insufficient consumer protection.

According to the legislative process, the bill requires bipartisan support to pass the Senate, needing at least 60 votes. This means that, on top of support from all Republican senators, at least 7 Democratic senators must also be secured. Both the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Banking Committee need to hold markups and votes on their respective versions, with the Agriculture Committee's markup expected to take place next week.

However, progress in the Senate Banking Committee has stalled. Previously, due to Coinbase withdrawing its support, the related markup plans were forced to be postponed. Points of contention include tokenized stocks, DeFi regulatory classification, the jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and CFTC, and stablecoin incentive mechanisms. Bloomberg reported that the Banking Committee may delay the legislative process by several weeks, prioritizing housing and affordability issues instead.