Congressional panels have advanced nominations for regulators who will deal with cryptocurrencies, but the full Senate has not yet confirmed them. We are also running out of time for market structure.
PS: I’ll be in Washington, DC for the Blockchain Association’s annual summit. I’d love to say hello if you’re there.
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the narrative
Two weeks ago, this newsletter looked at how time was running out for the crypto industry to achieve legislative victories in 2025. Now, with December in full swing and the House and Senate in their final two scheduled work weeks, it’s time to take stock of what remains to be done.
Why is it important
We have seen regulatory agencies take action since last month to further advance crypto efforts. Congress, however, remains in a strange state of limbo.
breaking it
The biggest question remains when Congress might make further progress on market structure legislation. By now it is clear that this bill (whatever the final text is) will not become law before next year at the earliest.
What’s less clear is whether the drafts we’ve seen will even make it to a review hearing before January. The Senate Banking Committee was considering Dec. 18 as a tentative date for a surcharge on its version, but negotiations on the bill’s text appear to be ongoing. The same goes for the Senate Agriculture Committee; Its members have not made any public statements about their version of the market structure bill since the first draft of the text was published weeks ago.
The Senate is making more visible progress in promoting President Donald Trump’s nominees to lead the CFTC and FDIC. Both Mike Selig and Travis Hill are on a Senate Resolution aimed at allowing that congressional body to confirm nearly 100 nominees at a time. A vote was supposed to be held this week, but that didn’t happen; The Senate is now expected to vote on this resolution next week.
This week
- The Senate will vote on a resolution to confirm, among others, CFTC Chairman nominee Mike Selig and FDIC Chairman nominee Travis Hill.
If you have any ideas or questions about what I should discuss next week or any other comments you would like to share, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.
See you next week!
