Crypto bill clears U.S. Senate milestone as effort advanced through first committee

Policy Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Crypto bill clears U.S. Senate milestone as effort advanced through first committee The market structure legislation for the first time advanced beyond a committee, setting up the next steps that could end with a vote of the overall chamber. By Jesse Hamilton | Edited by Nikhilesh De Jan 29, 2026, 4:41 p.m. Make us preferred on Google Democratic Senator Corey Booker lamented the Republicans walking away from market structure negotiations. (screen capture, Senate Agriculture Committee) What to know : After a brief series of amendments were rejected, the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee voted to advance its version of the crypto market structure bill to its next phase. That a high-water mark for market structure legislation in the Senate, after years of negotiation and lobbying, but the bill still needs to same treatment at the Senate Banking Committee. It's also lacking Democratic support that would be required for an eventual passage in the overall Senate, though Democrats remain at the negotiating table. The U.S. Senate has moved to a new stage with the crypto market structure legislation that the industry hopes will help it reach a new plateau of investor confidence and involvement, with a committee formally advancing the bill on Thursday. 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 & conditions and privacy policy . This is as far as the crypto sector's top policy effort has ever progressed in the Senate, though there are some headwinds. The committee working on the bill was the Senate Agriculture Committee, and its Republican chairman chose to step away from negotiations and vote on the legislation without bipartisan support. The resulting Republican-driven result — concluding quickly with a 12-11 party-line vote — will still need to gather significant Democratic support before it can eventually clear the structural hurdles of the Senate. "After months of work, we have made significant progress, really significant progress working together," said committee Chairman John Boozman, as the panel began work. "Now it's time to move this process forward." Democrats at the long-awaited markup session lined up as a unified block to oppose Republican preferences, illustrating the partisan standoff that's yet to be overcome. Several Democrats noted they hope to keep working on it to get to a bipartisan version, and Boozman himself acknowledged that the text can be updated through a manager's amendment before it proceeds through the Senate. "The progress that has been made here is good, but I think we believe that we're not quite done yet," said Senator Amy Klobuchar, the panel's ranking Democrat. "I hope we can continue to negotiate as this bill moves forward." The Agriculture Committee is one of two panels that ultimately need to sign off on the legislation. However, it's the Senate Banking Committee that might have the tougher time, because its version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act contains some of the more controversial elements, including the question of stablecoin yield. That effort, though, has been delayed in its own markup and stymied by the search for a compromise that will satisfy a number of interests, including Wall Street banking lobbyists. The White House intends to host another meeting next week with the intent to find common ground among crypto, banking, Republican, Democratic and administration interests. President Donald Trump and his representatives have pushed back on a couple of central points in the legislative effort, including Democrats' demands that he and other senior government officials be blocked from personally benefiting from crypto business interests. Senator Corey Booker, the lead Democrat negotiator, said the White House has made progress on the bill "infinitely harder.""This is ridiculous that the president of the United States and his family have made billions of dollars off of this industry and are still trying to create a framework here without the kind of ethics that would prevent this kind of gross corruption in our country," Booker said. On Thursday, the hearing's first amendment addressed the Democrats' ethics component. Boozman also seemed to support another of the Democrats' requests, that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission get a full slate of commissioners as it moves into a leading role in overseeing crypto. "It's essential to have a completely staffed, bipartisan commission," he said. The chairman noted as the markup concluded that the committee now needs to work with its Banking Committee counterparts and with lawmakers in the House of Representatives to come up with something that can be supported by both parties. He also said some of the amendments offered were better suited to that committee's version of the bill. If all goes well, this is what's needed to turn the bill into law: After the legislation cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday, it eventually needs to do the same in the Banking Committee. The distinct versions would need to be combined for a final Senate floor bill, which potentially gives the bill's advocates another chance to satisfy resistant Democrats. A combined bill could then be presented to the Senate for a final vote. A yes at that stage moves it back to the House of Representatives, which already passed its own version of the legislation with an overwhelming majority. Another approval sends the Clarity Act to Trump to be signed into law. The crypto industry is already sitting on a high-stakes win in this congressional session, having advanced a bill to govern U.S. stablecoin issuers into law, making its first major legislative victory in the U.S. But the industry has a tightening window to get this even bigger bill through as the Senate battles over federal funding and is getting nearer November's midterm elections. Senate Agriculture Committee Market Structure Legislation U.S. Senate More For You Pudgy Penguins: A New Blueprint for Tokenized Culture By CoinDesk Research Dec 30, 2025 Commissioned by Pudgy Penguins Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale. What to know : Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token. The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility. View Full Report More For You Live blog: Senate Agriculture Committee advances crypto market structure bill By Nikhilesh De , Jesse Hamilton 50 minutes ago The Senate Agriculture Committee held a markup hearing on crypto market structure legislation. What to know : The Senate Agriculture Committee is holding a markup hearing on crypto market structure legislation, letting lawmakers debate amendments on the underlying text. They'll ultimately vote on the bill itself at the end of the hearing. CoinDesk is providing live updates on the hearing as it continues through Thursday. In opening remarks, Democrats urged Committee Chairman John Boozman to support a more bipartisan bill, saying both parties wanted to support legislation. 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