On the heels of the House Financial Services Committee's introduction of the CLARITY Act, Republican senators who serve on the Senate Banking Committee introduced their “Crypto Market Structure Principles” (the Principles) to establish a “baseline” for negotiating the Senate's version of its market structure bill. Shortly after releasing the Principles, the Digital Assets Subcommittee of the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on market structure.
Despite making this forward progress, it is unclear when the Senate will put pen to paper on a market structure bill. House Financial Services Chair French Hill has indicated that he would like to pass the CLARITY Act with stablecoin legislation, with the support of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who stated that “market structure is essential to any congressional action on digital assets. I expect the GENIUS Act has a path in the House, so long as it's accompanied by the CLARITY Act.”
Despite the House's approach, the Senate and President Trump are calling on the House to pass a clean version of the GENIUS Act as soon as possible so the stablecoin legislation can move forward irrespective of the status of the market structure bill. We expect to see whose vision for timing wins out in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, the Senate is exploring market structure legislation of its own. According to Senator Cynthia Lummis, the Principles will “ensure the United States remains at the helm of global financial advancement.” The Principles provide that legislation should provide a distinction between digital asset securities and digital asset commodities and clearly allocated regulatory authority to avoid advancing an “all-encompassing regulator.” Themes of the Principles include fostering innovation, establishing clear guidance to enable financial institutions to operate in the digital asset space with regulatory certainty, and protecting customers.
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