Senate’s 60-Vote Test Looms for Crypto Bill as Jan. 15 Deadline Approaches
The long-awaited crypto market structure bill is set for a markup on January 15th before the Senate Banking Committee...
Quick overview
- The crypto market structure bill is scheduled for markup on January 15th, marking a significant step after months of stalled discussions.
- The bill aims to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets, mirroring the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that passed the House in July.
- Key issues remain unresolved, including ethics rules, stablecoin restrictions, and the treatment of decentralized finance, causing some lawmakers to express concerns about the timing of the bill.
- The upcoming Senate vote is critical, as it requires 60 votes to advance, and failure to secure this could delay the bill's progress until 2027.
The long-awaited crypto market structure bill is set for a markup on January 15th before the Senate Banking Committee, after months of talks that have been going nowhere. Tim Scott, the committee chair, said his team has pored over multiple drafts for over six months. Now it’s time for lawmakers to take a public stance, even if it’s a non-starter. If they can get it through committee, the bill would then go to the Senate floor, where a simple majority of 60 votes will be a major hurdle. But if it falls at the committee stage – and it’s a pretty big ‘if’ – then its chances of making it past this year are all but killed off.
Senate Push Reignites Stalled Crypto Talks
The bill is a mirror image of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that passed the House way back in July. It’s all about developing a framework to define how digital assets are regulated in the States, dividing oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Supporters of the bill reckon it would be a game-changer in reducing regulatory uncertainty that’s already been driving many crypto firms out of the States. They point to Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, which has been rolling out since 2024, as a warning sign that the United States is falling behind the rest of the world in getting clear rules on the books.
Senate Banking Committee votes January 15 on crypto legislation.
The big sticking point is DeFi treatment.
Balanced clarity unlocks institutional capital. Overreach pushes it offshore.
Washington gets one shot to get this right. pic.twitter.com/oAEXJ6kZ82
— Tan Gera, CFA (@juniortgr) January 7, 2026
Despite all that, a few Democrats and a handful of Republicans are still saying that pushing the bill forward at this time is a bit premature, given all the unresolved policy questions.
Still A Lot Of Policy Questions Hanging in the Air
The latest version of the bill shows that there are still a lot of issues up for grabs, which is why earlier deadlines – mid-year, October and end of year – all got missed. Some of the main sticking points are:
- Ethics rules dealing with conflicts of interest
- Restrictions on stablecoin products that make money
- Rules about how many regulators are needed to make a decision
- The legal treatment of things like blockchain and cryptocurrency
The most contentious issue is how to deal with Decentralised Finance (DeFi) – something that crypto advocates are getting pretty worked up about. They reckon it’s unfair to treat open-source developers like financial intermediaries. At the same time, Democrats are worried that waving those rules through too loosely could let in money laundering and other nasty stuff.
Election Risks Are Clouding The Way Forward
Timing is also playing a big role here – we’re heading towards the 2026 midterm elections after all, and that’s making a lot of lawmakers nervous about taking any risks. Democrats in particular risk handing Republicans a bit of a win on the crypto bill, especially since it’s got all sorts of ties to Donald Trump’s family, which has been in the crypto business. To make things even trickier, there are ethical concerns as well.
Pressure from industry is still ratcheting up, with Coinbase and others still beating the drum for action and warning that the States are losing out to other countries with clearer rules in place. Still, analysts at TD Cowen reckon that all this could push the bill’s passage to 2027.
So we’re down to the wire – next week’s markup is the moment of truth to see if Congress can actually do something about regulating cryptocurrency for the first time.
What’s 60? The “60” is the number of votes needed in the Senate to overcome a filibuster.
In the Senate, most big bills need at least 60 votes out of 100 to get past the ‘ blocking’ stage. Without it, the bill can be stalled for years and never actually get a final vote.
For the crypto bill:
- There are 100 senators in total
- You need 60 to move it forward
- Which means you need strong bipartisan support
Even if it makes it through the Senate Banking Committee, if it can’t get the 60 votes on the Senate floor, it’s basically game over. That’s why everyone is saying this vote is a make-or-break moment, not just some routine test. If we want to make it even simpler, 60 votes are the magic number needed to pass a bill in the Senate.
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