There is a growing sense that 2025 will be a bust for long-awaited US legislation to establish a fully regulated crypto sector, but talks in the Senate could at least build momentum again, according to the sentiments of those scheduled to speak with Senate Democrats this week.
Crypto leaders such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, Uniswap’s Hayden Adams and Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith are preparing to meet with as many as 10 Democratic senators, according to expectations from people involved in the event, though plans were not yet finalized.
Wednesday’s meeting, which is also set to include the heads of Kraken and Galaxy Digital and executives from a16z Crypto and Circle, will seek to move on from controversial discussion language that recently emerged from the Democratic side. The decentralized finance (DeFi) ideas outlined were seen as unworkable by industry insiders, threatening negotiations on the Crypto Market Structure bill that would set rules and government oversight for US crypto markets.
Crypto bosses hope to “get market structure legislation back on track and ensure communication with the industry remains open,” according to a Chainlink spokeswoman. “Dialogues like this are essential to making this a reality.”
Earlier this year, senators from both parties were optimistic about finalizing the legislation and getting it to the desk of President Donald Trump, who has already signed a bill regulating US-issued stablecoins. While the House of Representatives has already received market structure legislation with its Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the Senate’s progress has slowed as negotiations grew contentious and the federal government shut down for lack of an approved spending plan.
Trump’s earlier August deadline passed, followed by a Sept. 30 deadline set by Sen. Tim Scott, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. As ever-delayed plans for legislative markup dates slipped by, Sen. Cynthia Lummis had recently offered the end of the year as a more realistic target, though others are less hopeful.
“The U.S. Senate will do their job,” Mannar Hanna, a former general counsel for Senator Scott who now works at APCO Worldwide, said at a panel during DC Fintech Week. He joked that it pained him to admit that Parliament had already done its own duty.
“I would say next year,” Hanna predicted for the completion of the market structure. “There’s a lot on Congress’ plate in the next few months.”
Read More: Senate Democrats’ Leaked Crypto Position Would Stifle DeFi, Industry Insiders Say
UPDATE (20 October 2025, 18:52 UTC): Adds more company names as participants in the Senate.
