U.S. Senate's Crypto Market Structure Bill Gets Messy as Calendar Weighs Down

Policy Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email U.S. Senate's Crypto Market Structure Bill Gets Messy as Calendar Weighs Down The White House has shut down proposals, and lawmakers are circulating the Democrats' asks in what had been a close negotiation, revealing 11th-hour pressure. By Sam Reynolds , Jesse Hamilton | Edited by Nikhilesh De Dec 11, 2025, 3:35 a.m. Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk) What to know : Democrats shared a response to Republicans outlining their continuing priorities for a crypto market structure bill, which they said was intended to "reach an agreement and proceed towards a mark-up." The document laid out concerns with financial stability, market integrity and public officials' ability to trade and profit off of crypto, echoing concerns laid out in a framework Democrats shared in September. The Senate is running out of time in the Congressional calendar to hold a markup hearing — a key step toward progressing the bill — before 2025 ends. After weeks of what had been tightly buttoned talks between the parties, Senate Democrats have delivered their latest counteroffer on the crypto market structure bill, outlining a set of demands resembling those they first laid out in a public memo in September and potentially revealing the true depth of the divide inside the Senate. The summary shared this week and circulated online earlier Wednesday shows Democrats have accepted much of the Republicans' proposed framework. Yet they are insisting on significant structural changes that touch financial stability, market integrity, national security enforcement and the political conduct of public officials — mostly pointed at President Donald Trump. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the State of Crypto Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . The Democratic documents, confirmed by people familiar with the talks, were offered to "reach an agreement and proceed towards a mark-up" on a bipartisan bill. The document helps explain why senior Democrats are rejecting the push for a markup next week, despite repeated public assurances from GOP negotiators that the bill is nearly ready. Their position centers on several unresolved fronts: stronger disclosure and secondary-market protections for digital assets, updated tools to identify and deter illicit finance, rules to prevent platforms from bypassing compliance obligations by claiming decentralization, and strict limits on stablecoin yield that reflect long-standing fears about deposit flight from community banks. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also remain divided over how to split long-term oversight between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, leaving the bill’s core regulatory architecture unsettled. Democrats in the Senate Agriculture Committee had previously included a provision calling for bipartisan commissioners to be confirmed to these agencies in that committee's earlier draft bill. Democrats are also pushing for firm ethics rules to stop elected officials from issuing or profiting from crypto projects, a demand sharpened by Trump family ventures that have fueled accusations that digital assets have become Washington’s newest Swamp Asset. However, one of the leading negotiators — Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, the chairwoman of the digital assets subcommittee that's part of the Senate Banking Committee — revealed on Tuesday that the White House was already shooting down ethics provisions and demands for Democratic nominees for the federal commissions that will regulate the space. Trump and his officials have insisted there's nothing wrong with his personal business ties to the crypto sector as his administration seeks to set its policies. The reason some of the lawmakers and lobbyists seem to be getting more frantic about the negotiations is that they have a handful of days left in the 2025 Senate calendar, which ends next week. Slipping into January puts the process on a slide toward the political stresses of the midterm elections and the expiring Continuing Resolution that is currently funding the government and expires on Jan. 30, 2026 — a government shutdown may further delay any progress, as 2025's record-breaking shutdown did. The House of Representatives already passed a market structure bill earlier this year, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, and its members still routinely push for the Senate to just take up their bill and do some edits, rather than crafting its own legislation. But while much of the Clarity Act is echoed in the previous drafts of the Senate's work, it's still developing a bespoke version. As lawmakers continue to hash it out, progressive groups and unions have been circling, criticizing the current effort as a potential threat to U.S. financial stability and dangerous for retirees relying on steady pensions. They join the steady pushback of Senator Elizabeth Warren and like-minded lawmakers, the Democrats who have long criticized the rise of the crypto sector. Though Warren has been sidelined by many in her party who are negotiating directly with Republicans, she remains the ranking Democrat on the Banking Committee, one of the two panels that needs to pass the bill. Market Structure Legislation More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security By CoinDesk Research Nov 14, 2025 Commissioned by GoPlus What to know : As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B. View Full Report More For You Crypto CEOs Join U.S. CFTC's Innovation Council to Steer Market Developments By Jesse Hamilton | Edited by Nikhilesh De 5 hours ago The chief executives of firms such as Gemini and Kraken will pitch in on U.S. policy efforts through the council's future, public discussions. What to know : In her final days atop the agency, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Caroline Pham announced her CEO Innovation Council, replete with crypto executives. The names include the chief executives from Gemini, Kraken, Polymarket, Bitnomial and several others. The CFTC is expected to get its permanent chairman very soon when the Senate votes on the confirmation of Mike Selig, President Donald Trump's nominee. 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