With a markup event on legislation to address digital asset market structure scheduled for next week, representatives from cryptocurrency companies are expected to fly into Washington, D.C., and some will engage with lawmakers on the bill.
Speaking with Cointelegraph on Tuesday, Cody Carbone, CEO of crypto advocacy organization The Digital Chamber, said it was “possible, if not likely,” that the Senate Agriculture Committee would hold a markup on its version of the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (RFIA) — the market structure bill — at the same time as the Senate Banking Committee. Senator Tim Scott, who chairs the banking committee, said on Tuesday that the body would vote on market structure on Jan. 15.
Ahead of consideration by both committees, the Digital Chamber said it had been “intimately involved” in drafting the legislation and had been invited by lawmakers to provide feedback on different versions of the bills. Carbone told Cointelegraph that the organization will bring in more than 50 member companies on Thursday “to continue to educate Senate offices on why we need a bill” and answer related questions.
“We’ve been very intentional given our diverse membership to bring in participants from all across the digital asset ecosystem: exchanges, token issuers, banks, Bitcoin miners […] infrastructure providers, DeFi protocols,” said Carbone.
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Early drafts of the bill, expected to be one of the most significant pieces of legislation related to crypto and blockchain, showed that lawmakers planned to give the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) more authority in regulating digital assets. To date, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken a leading role in providing regulation and enforcement over many crypto companies.
Will the US midterms affect support for the bill?
On Monday, investment bank TD Cowen reportedly released a notice to investors warning that the RFIA was more likely to pass Congress in 2027, with final implementation potentially as late as 2029. The bank speculated that the 2026 midterm elections could cause some Senate Democrats to withdraw support for the bill, with Republicans potentially losing majority control in November.
This sentiment was similarly echoed by Republican Senator and Banking Committee member Thom Tillis, who in October said lawmakers should act “by the first part of January, February” to avoid conflicts with campaigning for the 2026 elections.
“Given the momentum of where we’re at and the progress that has been done between Republicans and Democrats over the last even just three weeks, through the holidays and the new year, it’s hard to bet against that this bill is going to get done early this year,” said Carbone. “There is a real desire to get it done before politics becomes a big factor in D.C.”
Progress on the bill in the Senate was likely delayed in October after Congress failed to reach a funding agreement, triggering the US government’s longest shutdown in the country’s history.
Congress later reached a stopgap agreement to fund the government until Jan. 31. However, political concerns could cause another shutdown in a matter of weeks, potentially delaying the market structure bill in the Senate again.
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