Lawmakers in Washington accelerated work this week on a landmark crypto bill that could reshape US digital asset markets and redefine regulatory oversight.
SEC Chair signals Trump will sign comprehensive legislation in 2025
Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins said Monday he is confident President Donald Trump will sign comprehensive crypto legislation in 2025, framing the effort as a pivotal step for US financial leadership. Speaking on Fox Business, he praised what he called a rare bipartisan push to build clear rules for digital assets.
“This is a big week for crypto – Congress is on the cusp of upgrading our financial markets for the 21st century,” Atkins said in a social media post, adding that he is “wholly supportive” of Congress clarifying the jurisdictional split between the SEC and the CFTC. That jurisdictional line has long been at the center of crypto policy fights.
The political timing is tight. However, Atkins argued that aligning regulators and Congress around a durable framework now could help the United States compete with Europe and Asia on digital asset innovation.
Senate Banking Committee drops 278-page market structure draft
Late Monday night, the Senate Banking Committee released a 278-page draft crypto market structure proposal. The legislation seeks to define how federal agencies including the SEC and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission will oversee trading platforms, issuers, and intermediaries across the sector.
“This fits in with the president’s focus on making America the crypto capital of the world,” Atkins said, arguing that predictable rules will give both issuers and investors greater confidence. Moreover, he stressed that codifying responsibilities for each regulator should reduce enforcement-by-press-release and headline-driven uncertainty.
The draft tackles several sensitive topics that have blocked digital asset legislation for years. However, it attempts to split the difference between banking industry concerns, investor protection priorities, and the crypto lobby’s demand for legal clarity.
Stablecoin yield limits and activity-based rewards
One central feature of the bill would bar digital asset service providers from paying interest or yield solely for holding payment stablecoins. That said, the text explicitly permits activity-based rewards tied to actual use, such as transaction incentives and similar programs.
This stablecoin compromise comes after weeks of negotiations between crypto industry groups and the banking lobby. Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks advanced the framework to shield community banks’ traditional deposit-taking model from direct competition with token issuers.
Representatives from Coinbase have described the arrangement as a constructive step that could unlock stalled talks. Moreover, industry advocates say codified stablecoin yield rules would finally give issuers and payment firms a reliable compliance roadmap.
Ancillary assets, ETFs and DeFi oversight
The Senate draft also revives the “ancillary asset” category previously featured in Banking Committee versions. This classification, absent from the House legislation, would require the two chambers to reconcile how they treat certain tokens that function differently from traditional securities.
Under the bill, network tokens currently held in exchange-traded funds would not be treated as securities. In practical terms, that carve-out would classify cryptocurrencies such as XRP, Solana, and Chainlink as non-securities by default when included in ETFs.
New language addresses decentralized finance oversight for the first time in this legislative effort. The draft incorporates the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act from Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden, which aims to provide tailored protections for certain DeFi participants.
DeFi developers reviewing the text say the protections appear weaker than versions circulated earlier this year. However, they note that the guardrails were not removed entirely, despite pressure from traditional finance lobbyists who had pushed for tougher treatment of open-source developers.
Definition of digital asset service providers
The legislation relies on the GENIUS Act definition of “digital asset service provider” to delineate who falls under the new regime. That definition captures exchanges, custodians, brokers, and certain issuers that offer trading, custody, or issuance services to the public.
Supporters argue that harmonizing the GENIUS Act definition with the new market structure rules will reduce overlap and confusion for firms that currently navigate a patchwork of state and federal guidance. Moreover, it could simplify compliance programs for both centralized exchanges and institutional custodians.
Critics, however, warn that the definitions may still leave gaps for emerging business models, including some DeFi front-ends and protocol governance structures that do not fit neatly into traditional categories.
Committee calendars and amendment battles
The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to debate and vote on the market structure bill on Thursday. Senators have until Tuesday evening to file amendments, setting up an intense, compressed negotiating period on everything from consumer safeguards to tax language.
The Senate Agriculture Committee, which shares jurisdiction over commodities markets, postponed its own markup to late January after initially targeting the same day as Banking. However, its version will be critical for determining the CFTC‘s precise role in supervising spot crypto trading.
Three Democratic senators sent a formal letter to Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott asking for more time to review the 278-page draft. Jack Reed, Tina Smith, and Chris Van Hollen argued that granting just 48 hours to examine the bill, and less than 24 hours to prepare amendments, was not sufficient for legislation of this scale.
Political risks and looming shutdown deadline
Both the Banking and Agriculture committees must advance their respective versions before the full Senate can take up the broader digital asset legislation. However, the calendar is constrained by fiscal deadlines in the House of Representatives.
Lawmakers face the risk of a federal government shutdown if the House fails to pass spending bills by January 30. That deadline threatens to derail floor time for crypto debates even if committees manage to approve their drafts this month.
The bill also sidesteps ethics questions raised by Democrats last fall about Trump family connections to several crypto businesses. Those concerns have not been resolved in the text, leaving opponents room to attack the measure on conflict-of-interest grounds if it reaches the Senate floor.
Addressing the regulatory gray zone
Atkins said Monday that pulling crypto markets out of the current regulatory gray zone remains the government’s most important task for investors. The proposed crypto bill is designed to give market participants a clearer sense of which activities fall under securities law and which are treated as commodities or payments services.
The Senate Agriculture Committee has said it needs additional time to refine key provisions and rally support before moving ahead with its markup. Moreover, negotiators from both parties acknowledge that reconciling the House and Senate approaches to stablecoins, DeFi, and market structure will likely stretch well into 2025.
For now, Atkins and committee leaders are framing this week’s hearings and draft releases as a turning point. If the process holds, they argue, the United States could finally move from ad hoc enforcement fights to a durable statutory framework for digital assets.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2026/01/13/crypto-bill-2025-signing-senate/
