The rebooted Senate is moving forward with certain crypto initiatives, but how much time is left versus how much work is left, really?
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The narrative
Now that Congress is back from the government shutdown, all eyes are on how it will proceed with crypto issues. There are a few components to this: Mike Selig’s nomination to run the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, market structure legislation and other crypto matters.
Why it matters
Time is running out for the crypto industry to maintain its victories from the 2024 election. While the GENIUS Act was a strong start for crypto companies, and the Securities and Exchange Commission and CFTC continue their efforts to create new regulations for the industry, the market structure is still far from complete. Congress has less than 40 days left this year and only a handful of months next year before it adjourns for the midterm elections.
To break it down
The Senate Agriculture Committee voted 13-11 to advance CFTC Chairman’s nominee Mike Selig’s name to the full Senate for a floor vote; if he obtains a majority of the votes, he should be sworn in shortly afterwards. This may happen in the coming weeks.
Selig said crypto is an important issue for the CFTC to look into, talking about specific issues like onchain markets and the role of intermediaries, among other things.
“The CFTC has a critical mission to protect these markets,” he said at his hearing Wednesday. “This is a real opportunity to develop a framework that can allow software developers to thrive, for new exchanges to emerge that will protect investors and have the type of controls that you would expect in an exchange and ensure that we have the right disclosure requirements that we typically have in our financial markets.”
The Senate Banking Committee also advanced the nomination of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Acting Chairman Travis Hill to be the regulator’s fully confirmed chairman of the Senate, among other nominees.
But the main event – market structure legislation – remains largely in the same public position as it was last week.
As noted last week, the Agriculture Committee’s new draft contains a few provisions that could prove controversial, including one that touches on conflicts of interest. This discussion draft will clearly see updates before the committee can hold a markup and vote. The Trump family’s various crypto businesses are also unlikely to leave the Democrats’ focus – Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Attorney General for information on allegations that the Trump-linked World Liberty Financial sold some of its tokens to “illegal actors”, including in sanctioned regions.
The Banking Committee may be closer to a markup — while the committee hasn’t released a revised draft bill for a while, negotiations appear to be underway between Republicans and Democrats.
Late. Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said Democrats had “stalled” the bill’s progress in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo earlier this week.
“The Democrats have stalled and stalled and stalled because they don’t want President Trump to make America the crypto capital of the world,” he said. “They don’t want to give them the win. It’s not just for President Trump. It’s for the American people, single mothers like the one who raised me.”
Still, he said the bill could still make it to the Senate floor in early 2026.
“Next month, we believe we can mark it up in both committees and get this to the floor of the Senate early next year, so President Trump will sign the legislation that makes America the crypto capital of the world and protects consumers while increasing the likelihood that America will be the most dominant economic power for the next 100 years,” Scott said.
Congress has a limited amount of time left in the year to get something done — lawmakers will be out of session next week for Thanksgiving, and will have just a few weeks in December before Christmas and the New Year.
- It is the Thanksgiving holiday in the US Congress will be back next week.
If you have thoughts or questions about what I’ll be discussing next week or any feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me at [email protected] or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
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See you next week!
