Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., arrives in the Capitol for a vote on Wednesday, February 26, 2024.
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The Senate is still ironing out its version of regulatory oversight for crypto and digital assets, but it’s another step closer.
Senators on Friday updated the draft of a major market structure crypto bill with a new provision that would keep stocks and other securities from being treated as commodities if they were tokenized as digital assets and crypto.
“We want this on the president’s desk before the end of the year,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told CNBC on Thursday.
The House and Senate passed a major stablecoin bill over the summer, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July.
But the real prize for many crypto companies like Coinbase and Ripple is the market structure bill.
The House passed its bill in July, but the Senate is working on its own version. The two versions will eventually need to be combined to reach Trump’s desk.
The Senate’s version, the Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2025, lays the groundwork for when digital assets will be regulated as securities versus commodities.
Lummis said she expects the Senate Banking Committee to vote this month on the portion of the bill dealing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She said she expects the Senate Agriculture Committee to vote in October on the portion dealing with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
A vote on the floor could come as soon as November, Lummis said.
The draft has yet to get support from Senate Democrats, but Lummis said bipartisan discussions are underway.
“There have been efforts to pair Democrats and Republicans on certain sub-issues within the bill to make sure that there’s — to the greatest extent possible —substantial bipartisan agreement on key issues,” Lummis said.
Even if all Republicans voted for the measure, at least seven Democratic senators would need to join them to ensure passage.
A spokesperson for the Senate Banking Committee said in a statement that the draft “reflects feedback from hundreds of stakeholders on a wide range of questions.”
