What To Know:
- Senate Banking Committee schedules January 15, 2026 vote on the Digital Asset Market Transparency Act amid growing legislative pressure.
- Bill seeks to clarify crypto market oversight by assigning spot market authority to the CFTC while preserving the SEC’s role over securities.
- Bipartisan divisions persist over ethics rules, stablecoin risks, and regulatory jurisdiction, raising uncertainty around final passage.
The US Senate Banking Committee has fixed January 15, 2026, as the date for a decisive vote on long-awaited cryptocurrency market structure legislation.
US Advances Crypto Market Structure Legislation
Committee chairman Tim Scott of South Carolina finalized the schedule after a handful of closed-door discussions in early January. Republican lawmakers briefed on the meetings said leadership in the party is positioning the vote as non-negotiable despite bipartisan disagreements still arising.
Scott told colleagues the committee would move forward with a formal vote regardless of whether there is a final compromise, ending years of delays that have delayed federal crypto legislation. The timing mimics wider legislative pressure. And now, with a federal spending deadline of January 30 approaching, Senate leaders are countering the risk of another government shutdown.
Republicans hope by prompting committee action next week, they can bring the Digital Asset Market Transparency Act to the Senate floor before the full bill of measure is consumed in the chamber’s larger fiscal game. The move also sits well with the administration’s effort to keep up the pace on digital asset policy in what officials have called “Crypto Week.” With the date set, partisan divides remain pronounced. Senate Republicans submitted their last negotiating package to Democrats on January 5.
The proposal involved over 30 tweaks to Chapter 1 of the bill, some of them tied to how crypto could be designated under federal law. The difference between commodities and securities has remained the focal point, determining which regulator controls large segments of the crypto market. Several of those changes have faced opposition from Democrats, led by Sen Elizabeth Warren. Warren and other lawmakers say that the current draft fails to sufficiently address conflicts of interest between policymakers. Their worries have grown since several cryptocurrency projects associated with President Donald Trump were established in 2023.
Democratic negotiators are demanding stricter ethics rules that would limit elected officials and their immediate family members from making profit from industries they oversee. Another flashpoint is stablecoins and how they might change the traditional banking service. Community banks have urged legislators to set limits on yield-bearing stablecoin products; unregulated growth or growth that they say can disinvigorate regulated financial institutions could drain their deposits. But those demands have met the approval among a number of moderate Democrats, making securing bipartisan support more challenging coming to committee vote.
At the center of the bill is a long-running jurisdictional dispute between federal regulators. The legislation proposes assigning primary oversight of spot cryptocurrency markets to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, while preserving the Securities and Exchange Commission’s authority over investment contracts. Under the framework, assets deemed “digital commodities” would fall under the CFTC’s exclusive supervision, an outcome long favored by the crypto industry.
Supporters argue that the shift would bring clarity to a fragmented regulatory environment and improve US competitiveness. Administration officials and industry advocates warn that regulatory uncertainty has already driven developers and capital toward jurisdictions such as Hong Kong and Dubai, where crypto rules are clearer and more predictable. The bill also introduces the concept of “ancillary assets,” aiming to define when a token associated with a blockchain project no longer qualifies as a security.
Still, expectations for swift enactment remain tempered. Analysts at TD Cowen’s Washington Research Group have cautioned that meaningful delays are likely even if the committee advances the bill. In a January 5 note to clients, analyst Jaret Seiberg projected that comprehensive market structure legislation may not pass Congress until 2027. The firm also warned that the subsequent rulemaking process could stretch for years, pushing full implementation toward the end of the decade.
Also Read: New Crypto Regulation in UK to Treat Crypto Assets Like Stocks
