The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee has released updated bill text ahead of a hearing next week — and some issues remain.
In releasing the draft text on Wednesday evening, the committee’s Republican Chair Sen. John Boozman said he worked with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker to “advance consumer protections and provide new authority to the CFTC [Commodity Futures Trading Commission],” but said differences remained.
“While differences remain on fundamental policy issues, this bill builds on our bipartisan discussion draft while incorporating input from stakeholders and represents months of work,” Boozman said. “Although it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t reach an agreement, I am grateful for the collaboration that has made this legislation better.”
In November, the Senate Agriculture Committee released a 155-page discussion draft as a preliminary step, giving the CFTC new authority to regulate digital assets. The draft was heavily bracketed, with many provisions left unresolved.
Those bracketed sections covered major policy questions, including how to regulate decentralized finance, the scope of joint rulemaking between the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission and the treatment of stablecoins, among other areas.
The latest draft on Wednesday has no brackets and excludes sections in the previous draft such as the “treatment of certain noncontrolling blockchain developers” and anti-money laundering.
Ji Hun Kim, chief executive officer at the Crypto Council for Innovation, called the release of the text an “important step.”
“The release of this market structure legislation is an important step toward a comprehensive framework for digital commodities,” Kim said in a statement. “Clear rules of the road are essential to protecting American consumers, supporting responsible innovation, and strengthening U.S. leadership.”
The Senate Agriculture Committee, which has jurisdiction over the CFTC, is scheduled to hold its hearing on Jan. 27. The version that is amended and voted on will have to reconcile with the Senate Banking Committee’s version, which has faced its own setbacks. One bill would then head to the Senate floor, where 60 votes are needed to pass — requiring unanimous Republican support plus some Democrats.
The banking committee oversees the Securities and Exchange Commission. Both the CFTC and SEC are key regulators with oversight of crypto.
Last week, the Senate Banking Committee was slated to hold its hearing to amend and vote on its version of a crypto market structure bill, but that fell through after Coinbase withdrew its support, citing concerns over the treatment of tokenized equities, DeFi, roles for the SEC and CFTC and a looming issue — how to treat stablecoin rewards.
That last issue has been particularly contentious, resulting in banks and the crypto industry lobbying against each other. Banking groups have sharply criticized a stablecoin law known as GENIUS, which passed over the summer. While the law bars issuers from paying direct interest to stablecoin holders, it does not prohibit third-party platforms such as Coinbase from offering rewards.
Bank groups say that a lack of clear limits could draw deposits away, hurting community banks, while some in the crypto industry accuse banks of trying to curb competition and say negotiations already happened before GENIUS was passed.
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