The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold no markup hearings on market structure legislation that defines how federal regulators can oversee the industry until next year, betting on a hoped-for hearing that many sought to hold at the end of this week.
A spokesman for the committee said in a statement Monday that “Chairman [Tim] Scott and the Senate Banking Committee have made great progress with Democratic counterparts” on the bill, but that lawmakers were still negotiating.
While the delay was expected, it’s still a blow to the crypto industry, which wanted to see at least a markup hearing, in the absence of more substantial progress toward a sweeping new law that was hoped for in 2025. It’s unclear how quickly lawmakers may be able to resume negotiations in the new year. Congress’ main focus will be on funding the US government after it returns from the holiday break, as a current funding bill expires on January 30. Assuming the government doesn’t shut down again, lawmakers will still have a limited amount of time to work on market structure before next year’s midterm elections become their top priority.
“From the beginning, Chairman Scott has been clear that this effort should be bipartisan,” the committee spokesman said. “He has consistently and patiently engaged in good faith discussions to produce a strong bipartisan product that provides clarity for the digital asset industry and also makes America the crypto capital of the world. The committee continues to negotiate and looks forward to a markup in early 2026.”
The market structure bill aims to define how the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission can oversee the crypto markets, designate the CFTC as a primary spot market regulator for crypto, and more clearly define how securities laws can apply to the sector.
The Banking Committee, which oversees the SEC, has prepared several drafts, while the Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the CFTC, has prepared a draft for discussion so far and is also set to hold its own markup hearing.
Points from Democrats include concerns about financial stability, market integrity and ethics — the latter largely a response to President Donald Trump and his family’s various crypto-related businesses, which have boosted his family’s fortunes to the tune of billions of dollars.
Although the bill is delayed, both the SEC and CFTC have begun efforts to become friendlier regulators to the industry regardless. The SEC has published a series of staff statements and held roundtables — one as recently as earlier Monday — to discuss how securities laws might apply to various facets of crypto. Meanwhile, the CFTC has moved to begin allowing institutions it has licensed to engage in spot crypto trading, and last week granted no action waivers to prediction market operators around certain data requirements.
Read more: US market structure bill could slide to January as talks continue over several points
