Democrats Signal Support for Bipartisan Solution to Market Structure Bill

A group of Democratic senators in the US Congress has signaled its intention to work with Republicans on advancing legislation to establish a digital asset market structure framework.

In a Friday statement, 12 Democrats, including members of the Senate Banking Committee and Senate Agriculture Committee, issued a statement ahead of an expected vote on a crypto market structure bill pushed by Republican leadership.

“We hope our Republican colleagues will agree to a bipartisan authorship process, as is the norm for legislation of this scale,” the statement reads. “Given our shared interest in moving forward quickly on this issue, we hope they will agree to reasonable requests to allow for true collaboration.”

Though Republicans hold a majority in both chambers of Congress, they could still need some Democratic support to pass legislation.

Among the Democrats’ proposed “seven key pillars” for a market structure bill released about two weeks ago were protections to fight illicit finance and “closing the gap in the spot market” for digital assets not considered securities.

They also asked Republicans to support “preventing corruption and abuse” and illicit finance.

Related: Key Republican senator expects Democratic support for US crypto market structure bill

A top Democrats on the banking committee, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, did not sign onto the statement with the 12 other lawmakers. Warren gave an interview during the August recess, in which she said that while digital assets need regulation, she would not support legislation “written by the crypto industry.”

Republicans looking to pass market structure by 2026

Last week, several cryptocurrency industry executives, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, met with Republican lawmakers to discuss a path forward for crypto-related bills in Congress.

Though the US House of Representatives passed its version of market structure under the CLARITY Act in July, Senate Republicans have signaled they will build on the legislation to draft a different bill. 

This bill, tentatively called the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, is expected to go for a vote in the Senate Banking Committee by the end of September, according to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis. Republicans expect the bill to be considered by the banking and agriculture committees before heading for a floor vote by the end of the year.

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