Lawmakers are preparing to try again on major bill. What can happen next

Lawmakers this week plan to revisit efforts to pass a market structure bill that will determine the crypto industry’s future in the U.S. — reviving legislative efforts that stagnated last year.

On Thursday, the Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees are expected to hold hearings on their respective parts of the crypto bill, where they might revise the text. This will lay the groundwork for establishing legislative guardrails for digital assets in the U.S. — a potential watershed moment for the crypto industry.

This is what you need to know about the market structure bill and efforts to pass it.

The so-called Clarity Act aims to provide legislative guardrails for the multitrillion-dollar crypto market and big digital asset firms — which could accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology and crypto in the U.S.

It seeks to clarify the Securities and Exchange Commission’s and Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s roles in regulating cryptocurrencies, in addition to creating more well-defined token classifications. It also aims to outline registration and compliance standards for a wide range of crypto brokerages, exchanges and other entities, enabling them to operate more easily in the U.S.

Those guardrails could help the U.S. court more digital assets companies to set up shop stateside, stimulating the economy and boosting the crypto market, according to Summer Mersinger, CEO of crypto trade group Blockchain Association.

“We’ve seen this massive movement of companies and activity back on shore because there is a friendly administration to crypto,” Mersinger said. But, without a market structure law, “that could all go away, especially if there’s a change to an unfriendly administration.”

That said, the bill’s implications for digital asset companies, crypto holders and other investors won’t be 100% clear until the draft legislation’s language is finalized. 

Lawmakers will attempt to hash out three key issues this week: stablecoin-linked rewards; the treatment of decentralized finance platforms and their developers; and the matter of blocking elected officials such as President Donald Trump from profiting off of crypto ventures. Trump-affiliated entities have launched both a memecoin and nonfungible token in the past.

The stablecoin issue is “the biggest outstanding issue” for negotiations on the Hill, said Cody Carbone, CEO of crypto trade association Digital Chamber.

“Stablecoin rewards, interest, yields, whatever you want to call it, will be addressed in the bill,” Carbone said. “Both Republicans and Democrats have come to that conclusion.”

In early January, the American Bankers Association’s Community Bankers Council wrote to Senate members, asking them to prevent stablecoin issuer affiliates from offering rewards to customers. The stablecoin products, they said, exploit a loophole…