Washington’s long-promised crypto rulebook is running into a very human roadblock: politics, power — and President Trump’s own balance sheet.
A sweeping market structure bill meant to clarify U.S. crypto regulation could be shelved until 2027, with implementation delayed to 2029, as Senate talks stall over Trump’s expanding crypto footprint and Democrats’ midterm leverage, according to The Block, citing TD Cowen.
Democrats are pushing to include language that would bar senior government officials — and their immediate families — from owning or operating crypto businesses while in office.
That provision would directly implicate President Donald Trump and his family, who have reportedly realized over $1 billion in direct profits from various cryptocurrency ventures since he was sworn in on January 20, 2025.
These ventures include World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi and stablecoin project that lists Trump and his three sons as co-founders.
The Trump family also holds a stake in bitcoin miner American Bitcoin, and launched the Official Trump ($TRUMP) and MELANIA ($MELANIA) meme coins shortly before Trump took office.
TD Cowen policy analyst Jaret Seiberg said such restrictions would be a “nonstarter” for Trump unless their effective date were pushed far into the future.
One potential way to overcome Trump’s objections is to make the conflict-of-interest provision effective three years after enactment, Seiberg explained.
Pushing it past the next inauguration, means it would never apply to Trump.
But there’s a catch.
“We do not believe Democrats would accept this deal unless it also pushed the rest of the bill out three years,” Seiberg added.
Republicans need 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, forcing them to secure support from at least seven to nine Democrats — even if the GOP stays unified. That arithmetic gives Democrats the ability to slow-walk negotiations or block progress outright.
With the 2026 midterms looming, Democrats are expected to regain control of the House. After the death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) on January 6, the Republican House majority narrows to 218-213.
Democrats could also strengthen their hand in the Senate, and prefer to delay passage and shape the regulatory outcome later.
Pushing enactment into 2027 would likely mean implementation in 2029, after the next presidential inauguration. That timing could allow Democratic regulators to write the final rules if a Democrat wins the White House in 2028.
“Time favors enactment as the problems disappear if the bill passes in 2027 and takes effect in 2029,” Seiberg said.
