Democratic Aide Expresses Willingness to Return to Negotiations, Senate Agriculture Committee Crypto Legislation Talks See a Turn

Odaily According to reports, following a setback in negotiations over cryptocurrency market legislation within the Senate Agriculture Committee, an aide to a Democratic senator stated that Democrats are still willing to return to the negotiating table to push for a bipartisan compromise.

The aide revealed that at the beginning of the new year, Democratic members were "somewhat caught off guard" in the negotiations, as the Republican side drafted a new version of the bill without sufficient consultation and originally planned to proceed directly to the markup process in mid-January. In response, Democrats hope to re-engage with the team of Committee Chairman, Republican Senator John Boozman, before this week's vote to strive for a cross-party consensus.

The Senate Agriculture Committee originally scheduled a markup and vote meeting on crypto legislation for this Tuesday but postponed it to Thursday due to severe weather in Washington. Meanwhile, some Democratic senators are actively pushing for the resumption of negotiations to reach a text acceptable to both parties before the hearing.

The crypto market structure bill aims to establish a federal-level digital asset regulatory framework, including clarifying the regulatory division of responsibilities between the SEC and the CFTC and related information disclosure requirements. Analysts point out that given both the Senate Banking Committee and the Agriculture Committee need to advance their respective versions of the bill, bipartisan cooperation remains a key prerequisite for the smooth progress of the legislation.