Lawmakers are preparing to try again on major bill. What can happen next
U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, USA on Thursday, December 11, 2025.
Daniel Heuer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Lawmakers this week plan to revisit efforts to pass a market structure bill that will determine the future of the crypto industry in the United States, reviving legislative efforts that have stalled over the past year.
On Thursday, the Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees are expected to hold hearings on relevant sections of the crypto bill, where they could revise the text. This will form the basis for establishing legal protections for digital assets in the US, a potential turning point for the crypto industry.
Here’s what you need to know about the market structure bill and efforts to pass it.
Purpose of the bill
The legislation, called the Openness Act, aims to provide legal protections for the multitrillion-dollar crypto market and major digital asset firms that could accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology and crypto in the United States.
In addition to creating better-defined token classifications, it aims to clarify the roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in regulating cryptocurrencies. It also aims to set registration and compliance standards for a wide range of crypto brokers, exchanges, and other organizations, enabling them to more easily operate in the United States.
According to Summer Mersinger, CEO of crypto trade group Blockchain Association, these guardrails could help the US get more digital asset companies to set up shop in the US, boosting the economy and boosting the crypto market.
“We have seen such a big move of companies and activities offshore because there is friendly governance towards crypto,” Mersinger said. But without market structure legislation, “all of this could disappear, especially in the event of a change in unfriendly management.”
However, the implications of the bill for digital asset companies, crypto holders, and other investors will not be 100% clear until the language of the draft legislation is finalized.
What’s happening this week
Lawmakers will try to resolve three key issues this week: stablecoin-linked rewards; handling of decentralized finance platforms and their developers; and the issue of preventing elected officials like President Donald Trump from profiting from crypto ventures. Trump affiliates have launched both memecoins and non-fungible tokens in the past.
Cody Carbone, CEO of crypto trade association Digital Chamber, said the stablecoin issue is the “biggest issue” in negotiations on the Hill.
“Stablecoin rewards, interest, yield, whatever you want to call it, will be addressed in the bill,” Carbone said. “Both Republicans and Democrats came to that conclusion.”
In early January, the American Bankers Association’s Community Bankers Council Wrote to Senate membersWe are asking them to prevent stablecoin issuer affiliates from offering rewards to customers. They said stablecoin products exploit a stablecoin-centric loophole. The Genius Act was passed last year This bans dollar-pegged tokens that offer returns to their holders, making them an attractive alternative to high-yield savings accounts and other traditional products.
On the DeFi front, crypto advocates are fighting to ensure that developers do not face prosecution when their technology is used for illegal activities such as money laundering.
“We are aware of how illicit financing is addressed in the bill… but we need to make sure that there are not obligations based on codes rather than the person, or that they are unintentionally burdened in a way that the technology cannot comply with,” Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer of the DeFi Education Fund, told CNBC. he said.
DeFi advocates also want to make sure the market structure bill includes language that allows individuals to self-storage their crypto. They also want provision from the law. Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act It calls for software developers and blockchain service providers that do not control or store customer funds to be exempt from registering as money transmitting businesses.
Finally, some lawmakers, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), want to prevent public officials from profiting from digital asset ventures while providing services.
“This is a really difficult issue,” Mersinger said. “They ended up taking a kind of gamble [on] It was in the House because it was really difficult to get the bill passed. “A lot of Senate Democrats said, ‘We’re not going to play around with this.'”
‘key window’
The Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees are expected to release new drafts of the market structure bill on Thursday to discuss and revise the details of the proposed legislation, according to Mersinger.
They will then combine the two documents to create one large crypto invoice. The bill will head to the Senate floor, where debate could last several weeks, before potentially becoming law through the remainder of the legislative process.
Mersinger told CNBC that crypto supporters want to see the bill passed before the 2026 midterm elections to avoid losing momentum on the Hill and in case some of the industry’s allies are voted out of office in November.
“There are a lot of other priorities that Congress has on the books this year, and this is kind of the key window that they see from the committee to get something on the table and have the time to get it done,” Mersinger said.
