US Senate banking chair eyes vote on crypto market bill next month

U.S. Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott said Tuesday that he aims to have the committee vote on the crypto market structure bill next month.

"By the end of this year, next month, we believe we can mark up and vote in both committees and get this to the floor of the Senate early next year so that President Trump will sign the legislation," Scott said Tuesday on Fox Business' Mornings with Maria.

The market structure legislation requires approval from both the Senate Banking and Agriculture committees, as it deals with both securities and commodities regulations.

Scott said the legislation would protect consumers while helping cement America's dominance as the world's most powerful economy for the next century. The Republican senator unsuccessfully pushed to pass the bill by September this year, for which he blamed the Democrats.

"The Democrats have been stalling and stalling and stalling because they don’t want President Trump to make America the crypto capital of the world," Scott said in the Tuesday appearance on Fox Business. "It’s not just for President Trump, it’s for the American people."

The Senate has been working on its own crypto market structure legislation after the House passed its version — the CLARITY Act — this summer. 

The Republican-led Senate Banking Committee seeks to delineate jurisdiction between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), while creating a new term for "ancillary assets" to clarify which cryptocurrencies are not securities. Republicans would need Democratic support to advance the bill. 

Amid ongoing bipartisan discussions on the legislation, a proposal from Senate Democrats was leaked. The six-page proposal focused on decentralized finance and would task the Treasury Department and other financial regulators with defining when an entity or person "exercises control or sufficient influence." This draft drew heavy criticism from many in the crypto industry, with some arguing it would essentially ban DeFi. 

Following the incident, both the Senate Democrats and Republicans each held meetings with industry leaders. Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith, who was present at the Democrat meeting, told The Block that there is a group of Democratic Senators that want to "get this done."