Efforts to define the future of cryptocurrency regulation in the United States have hit another delay.
The Senate’s version of the long-awaited crypto market structure bill remains unfinished, with insiders now expecting the markup to slip into December.
What was once hailed as the final stretch has turned into yet another drawn-out phase of revisions. Staff from both the Banking and Agriculture Committees are still negotiating key details of how oversight duties will be divided between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Multiple advisors involved in the process described the atmosphere as “intense but stagnant,” with policymakers revisiting sections that were thought to be resolved. Although a working draft was expected to emerge this week, last-minute disagreements forced further rewrites.
White House official David Sacks, who oversees both crypto and AI initiatives, joined a recent conference call with Senate staff to assess progress. He praised the bipartisan effort but acknowledged unresolved questions surrounding DeFi and stablecoin regulation. One version of the bill reportedly includes bracketed sections — essentially placeholders marking unresolved language — highlighting the persistent lack of agreement.
The Senate had initially targeted a markup before the Thanksgiving recess, but that window has effectively closed. With Congress set to adjourn next week, attention is turning to December as the next possible date. Still, aides caution that congressional scheduling is unpredictable, especially with several competing legislative priorities.
This isn’t the bill’s first setback. After the House advanced its own version earlier this year, optimism ran high that the Senate would follow suit quickly. However, the government shutdown, followed by debates over how to classify DeFi platforms, repeatedly pushed the timeline back.
Senator Cynthia Lummis called the ongoing discussions “granular but highly constructive,” signaling that both parties remain committed despite the slow progress.
If passed, the bill would mark the most comprehensive effort yet to draw a clear line between securities and commodities in the digital asset space — a distinction that could reshape the way exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and decentralized protocols operate in the U.S.
While Washington’s process stalls, other countries are moving ahead. The Bank of England, for instance, recently confirmed plans for a consultation paper on stablecoin regulation, underscoring how global peers are already preparing frameworks the U.S. has yet to finalize.
For now, America’s crypto industry remains in a holding pattern — waiting for Congress to catch up to an ecosystem that refuses to slow down.
