Crypto Market Structure Legislation Faces Year-End Crunch in Senate
Committees race to finalize draft bills before December markups
Welcome to the Monday edition of the Crypto In America newsletter!
What you’ll read: Senate staffers are working overtime on crypto and what to watch this week.
Senate staffers are racing the clock to make last-minute progress on market structure legislation before members leave for Thanksgiving on Thursday.
The goal now appears to be having bills in both Senate Ag and Senate Banking ready for markups in early December, at least according to Ag Committee Chair John Boozman (R-AR), who said he is committed to that timeline and noted that the government shutdown pushed back his original plan to mark up the product this week.
Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC), who originally aimed to mark up a Banking bill by the end of September, has not yet weighed in on setting a date for his committee’s half of the draft. That text has also not been released since it became a bipartisan product following last month’s reconciliatory roundtables on Capitol Hill, and it is unclear whether it will be unveiled before the Thanksgiving break.
If not, industry still has plenty to chew on over the holiday with the Senate Ag draft, which left several key sections blank, including how to regulate DeFi, and included language in brackets that lawmakers still have not agreed on.
“The two committees need to talk to each other. Right now it’s being done in somewhat of a siloed format,” Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone told Crypto In America. “What I think happens next is Senate Ag continues to take industry feedback, and over the next few weeks they start filling out those bracketed portions.”
Carbone said he expects Banking to take the lead on DeFi regulation, since it falls mainly under their jurisdiction, which means the key part of the bill that industry is waiting for and that will likely face the most scrutiny has yet to be released.
If the committees can get the bills through their respective markups next month, the two texts will then be merged into a single piece of legislation and head to the Senate floor for a full vote.
Adding to the urgency, with the holiday season and year-end approaching, many expect the voting process and the market structure bill potentially becoming law to be pushed into next year’s session, where much of the focus in the latter half will be dominated by the midterm elections.
“We’re running out of time, not just in the calendar year, but in this Congress,” Carbone said.
That said, optimism remains.
“I know some people fret over the details that remain to be resolved,” said Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase. “But I think we’re going to get it done, even if it feels like there are still some important obstacles that remain.”
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👀 What To Watch This Week
Monday
3:35 PM: Fed Governor Christopher Waller will give a speech on economic outlook in London.
Tuesday
10:00 AM: The House Financial Services Committee will host its first hearing since September on the future of deposit insurance.
Wednesday
10:30 AM: The Senate Banking Committee will vote on a handful of nominations including Travis Hill to be FDIC Chair.
2:00 PM: The Fed releases the minutes from its October meeting.
3:00 PM: The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Mike Selig to be CFTC Chair.
Thursday
8:30 AM: The September jobs report, delayed due to the shutdown, is expected to be released.
Friday
10:00 AM: University of Michigan releases final consumer sentiment data for November.
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