The Senate Agriculture Committee published the draft Crypto market structure law on Monday, bringing the body a necessary step closer to advancing its response to the House of Representatives’ Clarity Act to define how exactly the Commodity Futures Trading Commission can oversee market trading.
The draft bill, which still includes brackets indicating sections where lawmakers have yet to fully agree on details, marks a major step toward the government delineating where the CFTC’s jurisdiction ends and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s jurisdiction begins — a key question that only Congress can answer as these federal agencies ramp up their own efforts to publish guidance for crypto companies and other firms hoping to offer crypto-related services in the Kami
However, a draft is still one step along the legislative path, and the Senate’s bandwidth Has the federal government moved?.
Senate staff worked on the bill over the weekend, two individuals familiar with the situation told Coindesk, even as lawmakers worked on a deal to end the ongoing US government shutdown. That final deal cleared a procedural hurdle Sunday, though the Senate — and House of Representatives — have yet to vote on an actual continuing resolution to fund the government.
The draft published Monday, led by committee chairman John Boozeman and one of the panel’s senior Democrats, Cory Booker, defines terms like “blockchain” and how these concepts can be applied under the Commodity Exchange Act; It led the CFTC to engage in joint decision-making with the SEC to address everything from portfolio securities neglect to how the agencies will supervise intermediaries.
Some of the bracketed sections include definitions for how this Bill may interact with other laws. One section said the “minority view” — referring to Democrats here — is that lawmakers don’t believe the agriculture committee has enough jurisdiction to pass a piece of legislation, but want to work with the banking committee to get it done.
Another section bracket would direct the CFTC to have at least two commissioners with Minority Party consultation in their makeup. The CFTC is now run by a single acting chair, Caroline Pham. President Donald Trump has elected current SEC Crypto Task Force counsel Mike Selig to take over as Chairman, but he has yet to appoint any other commissioners.
In a statement, Defi Education Fund Executive Director Amanda Tuminelli said, “We hope that the section left open for Defi will be filled with robust developer protections that clearly distinguish centralized intermediaries from software developers without custody and control of other people’s money.”
The Agriculture Committee oversees the CFTC, and the Senate Banking Committee, which has already published several drafts of its own, oversees the SEC. Both committees have to advance their respective bills out of committee.
Even before that, though, there was considerable grumbling among lawmakers about just moving to the markup stage — a formal process in which bills are opened for amendments before being put up for final committee votes. Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee are also contending with disagreement over the bill’s readiness within their own ranks, including from a critical senator, John Kennedy.
And while a large contingent of Democrats is eager to stake out the common ground and pass a bill, others including Senator Elizabeth Warren have raised persistent objections about the risks taken by the crypto industry and the conflict of interests presented by President Donald Trump’s personal stake in the sector.
The conventional wisdom among crypto lobbyists and top lawmakers for how later the market structure effort could clear the Senate has shifted several times, from the end of August that Trump first set, to September, then this month, and more recently to the end of the year — if at all.
Negotiations moved in fits and starts, recently derailed for a time of a controversial set of proposals Industry insiders said it threatens key elements of decentralized finance (defi). But recently Meetings with crypto CEOs and key legislators Track conversations are captured.
It could still take months for bills to advance through committees and reach the Senate floor for a vote, however, said Ron Hammond, head of policy and advocacy at Wintermute.
“It is possible that one or both committees will vote on their respective versions of the bill by the end of the year,” he said. “However, the next step is putting the bills together and navigating politics/various stakeholders.”
A vote on the Senate floor may not happen until the first quarter of 2026, “but a lot needs to happen before then,” he said.
