Congressional panels have advanced nominations for regulators who will deal with crypto, but the full Senate has not yet confirmed them. We are also running out of time for market structure.
PS: I will be in Washington, DC for the Blockchain Association Annual Summit. I’d love to say hello if you’re there.
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The narrative
Two weeks ago, this newsletter looked at how time was running out for the crypto industry to lock in legislative victories in 2025. Now, with December in full swing and the House and Senate both down to their final two scheduled work weeks, it’s time to take stock of what remains to be done.
Why it matters
We have seen the regulatory agencies take steps since last month to further advance crypto efforts. However, Congress is still in a strange state of limbo.
To break it down
The biggest question remains when Congress can make further progress on market structure legislation. It is clear at this point that this bill – whatever the final text happens to be – will not become law until next year at the earliest.
What’s less clear is whether the drafts we’ve seen will even make it to a markup hearing before January. The Senate Banking Committee was looking at Dec. 18 as a tentative date to hold a markup on its version, but negotiations on the bill appear to be ongoing. Ditto with the Senate Agriculture Committee; its members have not made any public statements on their version of the market structure bill since releasing the first draft of the text weeks ago.
The Senate is making more visible progress in advancing President Donald Trump’s nominees to lead the CFTC and FDIC. Both Mike Selig and Travis Hill are on a Senate resolution that would let Congress confirm nearly 100 nominees at once. A vote was supposed to take place this week, but it didn’t happen; The Senate is now expected to vote on this resolution sometime next week.
This week
- The Senate will vote on a resolution to confirm CFTC Chairman-nominee Mike Selig and FDIC Chairman-nominee Travis Hill, among others.
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.
You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.
See you next week!
