After weeks of very close cross-party talks, Senate Democrats presented their latest counteroffer on the crypto market structure bill, outlining a set of demands that resemble those they first laid out in a public memo in September and potentially reveal the true depth of the division within the Senate.
The summary shared this week and distributed online early Wednesday shows that Democrats have accepted much of the framework proposed by Republicans. However, they insist on significant structural changes affecting financial stability, market integrity, national security enforcement, and the political conduct of public officials, primarily directed at President Donald Trump.
The Democratic documents, confirmed by people familiar with the talks, offered to “reach a deal and move toward a margin” on a bipartisan bill.
The document helps explain why senior Democrats are rejecting the push for an increase next week, despite repeated public assurances from Republican negotiators that the bill is almost ready.
Their position focuses on several unresolved fronts: stricter disclosure and secondary market protections for digital assets, updated tools to identify and deter illicit financing, rules to prevent platforms from evading compliance obligations by claiming decentralization, and strict limits on the performance of stablecoins that reflect long-standing fears about deposit leaks from community banks.
Lawmakers from both parties also remain divided over how to divide long-term oversight between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, leaving the bill’s core regulatory architecture unresolved. Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee had previously included a provision calling for bipartisan commissioners to be confirmed to these agencies in that committee’s previous bill.
Democrats are also pushing for strong ethical rules to prevent elected officials from issuing or profiting from crypto projects, a demand intensified by Trump family companies that have fueled accusations that digital assets have become the new asset in the Washington swamp.
However, one of the main negotiators, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, chair of the digital assets subcommittee that is part of the Senate Banking Committee, revealed on Tuesday that the White House was already striking down provisions and ethics demands for Democratic candidates for the federal commissions that will regulate the space. Trump and his officials have insisted there is nothing wrong with his personal business ties to the crypto sector as his administration seeks to set its policies.
The reason some lawmakers and lobbyists appear to be increasingly frantic with negotiations is that they have just a few days left on the Senate’s 2025 calendar, which ends next week. Getting to January sees the process slide into the political tensions of the midterm elections and the Continuing Resolution that currently funds the government and expires on January 30, 2026; A government shutdown can further delay any progress, as the record-breaking 2025 shutdown did.
The House of Representatives already passed a market structure bill earlier this year, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, and its members still routinely push for the Senate to simply take up their bill and make some amendments, rather than crafting its own legislation. But while much of the Clarity Act echoes earlier drafts of the Senate’s work, a tailored version is still being developed.
As lawmakers continue to debate it, progressive groups and unions have been making the rounds, criticizing the current effort as a potential threat to America’s financial stability and dangerous for retirees who rely on stable pensions. They join the continued pushback from Senator Elizabeth Warren and like-minded lawmakers, Democrats who have long criticized the rise of the cryptocurrency sector. Although Warren has been sidelined by many members of her party who are negotiating directly with Republicans, she remains the ranking Democrat on the Banking Committee, one of two panels that must approve the bill.
