Macquarie (MQG) expects the US Senate’s crypto push to accelerate as recent closed-door talks between Democrats and Republicans on a compromise market structure bill mark a meaningful step toward a bipartisan deal, the investment bank said in a report last week.
The bank held a Dec. 8 meeting with Democratic negotiators, including senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Warner and Ruben Gallego, and a separate meeting between senators and Wall Street executives such as Citigroup’s ( C ) Jane Fraser, Bank of America’s ( BAC ) Brian Moynihan and Wells Fargo’s ( WFC )’s ( WFC ) next phase of Charlie Scharf’s next phase may shape. of US digital asset law.
The Senate’s compromise push on a market structure bill is seen as a “significant catalyst for the US crypto ecosystem,” wrote analysts led by Paul Golding.
The bank noted that the Senate Agriculture Committee has already released a bipartisan draft that would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) additional authority over digital commodities, acting as a companion to the Senate Banking Committee’s Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2025, which outlines the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approach to digital assets, or “SEC ancilla.”
Analysts expect a markup of the bill before the Agriculture Committee in early 2026 and that it will reconcile its bill with the Senate Banking Committee.
In parallel, the analysts noted that federal agencies are close to rolling out regulations to implement the GENIUS Act.
FDIC Acting Chairman Travis Hill told the House Financial Services Committee on December 2 that the agency plans to issue a proposal on stablecoin supervisory standards in early 2026. Macquarie also highlighted comments from the National Credit Union Administration that it is making progress and from Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michelle Bowman that the central bank is working with other banking regulators to issue a framework for coins and banks.
The bank viewed a potential Senate Banking Committee compromise push for the market structure bill as a key catalyst for the US crypto market, arguing that it could finally settle SEC-CFTC dogfights and create a viable “investment contract-asset pathway” for token decentralization, opening the door to greater institutional participation under clearer oversight.
The bank cautioned that the bill still needs to clear committees, reconcile agriculture language and pass a closely divided Senate in a midterm election year, even as banks push for a favorable yield from stablecoins and custodial processing.
Still, Macquarie assigns a solid chance of a Senate-modified market structure proposal being passed and sent to conference around the end of the first quarter to mid-2026, with a full crypto-law package potentially coming into effect soon after.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which regulates thousands of banks in the United States, yesterday issued its first proposal for a rule governing the application process for issuing stablecoins.
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