Thursday, December 11, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
Daniel Heuer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Lawmakers this week will revisit efforts to pass a market structure bill that would determine the future of the U.S. cryptocurrency industry, reviving legislative efforts that stalled last year.
On Thursday, the Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees are scheduled to hold hearings on their respective parts of the virtual currency bill, where provisions could be amended. This would lay the groundwork for establishing legal guardrails for digital assets in the United States, a potential turning point for the cryptocurrency industry.
Here’s what you need to know about the market structure bill and efforts to pass it.
Purpose of the bill
The so-called Clarity Act aims to provide legal guardrails for the multitrillion-dollar cryptocurrency market and large digital asset companies, potentially accelerating the adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies in the United States.
In addition to creating a more clearly defined token classification, this aims to clarify the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in regulating cryptocurrencies. It also aims to outline registration and compliance standards for a wide range of virtual currency intermediaries, exchanges, and other entities, making it easier for these entities to operate in the United States.
These guardrails could help the U.S. encourage more digital asset companies to set up shop in the state, stimulating the economy and boosting the crypto market, according to Summer Mersinger, CEO of the blockchain association, a crypto trade group.
“We’ve seen a large-scale movement of businesses and activities back to shore because we have regimes that are friendly to cryptocurrencies,” Marsinger said. But without market structure laws, “that could all disappear, especially if an unfriendly government changes.”
However, the impact of this bill on digital asset companies, crypto holders, and other investors will not be 100% clear until the bill’s text is finalized.
what’s happening this week
Lawmakers will seek clarity on three key issues this week. Treatment of decentralized financial platforms and their developers. and the issue of preventing elected officials like President Donald Trump from profiting from crypto ventures. Trump-related groups have launched both meme coins and non-fungible tokens in the past.
Cody Carbone, CEO of the digital chamber, a crypto industry group, said the stablecoin issue is “the biggest outstanding issue” for negotiations on The Hill.
“Stablecoin fees, interest rates, yields, whatever you want to call it, will be addressed in the bill,” Carbone said. “Both Republicans and Democrats have come to that conclusion.”
In early January, the American Bankers Association’s Community Bankers Council sent a letter to senators asking them to block affiliates of stablecoin issuers from offering rewards to customers. They say the stablecoin product takes advantage of a loophole in the stablecoin-centric Genius Act, passed last year, which banned dollar-pegged tokens that offer yield to holders, making them an attractive alternative to high-yield savings accounts and other traditional products.
On the DeFi front, cryptocurrency advocates are fighting to protect developers from prosecution if their technology is used for illegal activities such as money laundering.
“We are very conscious of how the bill deals with illicit finance… but we need to make sure we don’t impose obligations on code rather than people or inadvertently burden technology with non-compliance,” Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer at the DeFi Education Fund, told CNBC.
DeFi proponents also want to ensure that the market structure bill includes language that would allow individuals to self-manage their cryptocurrencies. It also seeks provisions in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act that would exempt software developers and blockchain service providers who do not manage or store customer funds from registering as money transfer operators.
Finally, some members of Congress, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), want to prevent public officials from profiting from digital asset ventures while in office.
“This is a really difficult problem,” Marsinger said. “It was really hard to pass the bill, so they ended up shelving it in the House. A lot of Senate Democrats are saying, ‘We’re not going to shelve this issue.'”
“Key window”
Marsinger said the Senate Agriculture and Banking committees will table a new draft of the market structure bill at Thursday’s markup, with the goal of discussing and revising the bill’s details.
The two documents are then combined to create one large crypto bill. The draft bill will now go to the Senate floor, where it could be debated for several weeks before passing through the rest of the legislative process.
Marsinger told CNBC that crypto advocates want the bill to be passed before the 2026 midterm elections, in case some crypto industry allies lose their seats in November and to avoid losing momentum on the slopes.
“The Legislature has a lot of other priorities this year, so this is kind of an important window to get it out of committee and onto the floor, so we have the time we need to get it done,” Marsinger said.
