The debate to get a crypto market structure bill through the next stages in the Senate has hovered at almost-there status for weeks, and Republican lawmakers met Thursday to figure out how to bridge the final gaps.
The White House was expected to have some updated legislative language on Thursday, reflecting ongoing work on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, according to people familiar with the situation. But negotiations are still ongoing, and even if previously undecided senators (such as Republican Thom Tillis) become satisfied with the bill’s stablecoin dividend treatment, other distinct compromises (such as the approach to decentralized finance) must also be secured before the Senate will be able to send the crypto industry’s top priority to President Donald Trump.
The long-running debate that had focused on the stablecoin dividend — over which bankers and crypto companies have been divided over the structure of stablecoin reward programs — is close to ending, the people said, even as lawmakers have discussed what else community bankers could be offered to win their support while they address some of their other priorities. That could include some unrelated provisions tied to Congress’ latest housing legislation, according to reporting by Politico.
Trump administration officials are said to be involved in the meeting between Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee, which is the second panel to advance the bill before it would be repackaged into a final version that could get a vote in the upper Senate. Even if the effort moves out of committee by the end of April, as Sen. Cynthia Lummis predicted this week, a few additional hurdles could be out of lawmakers’ hands.
Democrats involved in the negotiations have said they still want senior officials and lawmakers to benefit from personal crypto interests — most pointedly aimed at Trump. And they want Democrats appointed to the party’s vacant seats on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission before the agency adopts new crypto rules. Those are both points that could require concessions from the White House, and crypto insiders expect these controversial points to be the last matters decided as lawmakers work on a final bill.
On the dividend issue, Lummis has said that stablecoin rewards programs that avoid bank line language about savings and interest can survive the compromise, insisting that they are more akin to credit card rewards than bank account deposit interest.
Lummis said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, whose opposition to a previous bill helped derail an earlier effort to get to a Senate hearing, has been more flexible in recent negotiations. The company did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment on its position.
While Congress works, the Securities and Exchange Commission spent much of the week issuing and debating new crypto policy items, including a first-ever taxonomy setting out regulatory definitions for US crypto assets. In a CoinDesk op-ed Thursday, Chairman Paul Atkins and the two Republican commissioners suggested they are eager to have a new law that supports the policies they are working on.
“Only Congress can rewrite the law, and we are ready to work with [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] Chairman Michael Selig to implement the CLARITY Act,” they wrote. “In the meantime, we are delivering the responsible regulatory approach that markets are demanding.”
