U.S. Senate Schedules January Hearing for Landmark Crypto Market Structure Bill

Momentum is building in Washington for a comprehensive digital asset framework as the U.S. Senate prepares to take up a long-awaited crypto market structure bill in January.

The move marks the closest Congress has come to establishing a federal regulatory regime for digital assets, though political tensions and concerns over regulatory independence continue to complicate the path forward.

White House Adviser Confirms Hearing Timeline

David Sacks, the White House’s senior adviser on AI and digital assets, announced that Senate committee chairs have agreed to formally debate the “Market Structure Clarity Act” next month.

“We had a productive call today with Senators Tim Scott and John Boozman,” Sacks wrote on X. “Thanks to their leadership, and the work of Representatives French Hill and GT in the House, we are closer than ever to finalizing the president’s digital asset market structure vision.”

The January hearing will be overseen jointly by:

• Sen. Tim Scott, Ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee
• Sen. John Boozman, Ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee

The bill aims to define how authority is split between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC, a foundational issue that has halted industry development for years.

A Bill Years in the Making

The House passed a bipartisan version of the Digital Asset Market Structure bill in July 2025, alongside the “Genius Act,” a regulatory framework for stablecoins that former President Donald Trump signed into law.

But the Senate’s version has faced repeated delays, first over the summer, then again in October, leaving January’s hearing as its first formal review in 2026.

Regulatory Independence at Center of Democratic Concerns

Despite growing Republican support, Democratic lawmakers remain deeply skeptical. Their concerns focus on whether financial regulators will remain independent under a Trump administration.

President Trump recently signaled openness to nominating Democratic commissioners to the SEC and CFTC, a requirement tied to the bill’s passage, telling Decrypt:
“Certain areas are shared power, and I’m open to that.”

But Democrats argue such statements carry limited weight. The Supreme Court is currently weighing whether to overturn a 90-year precedent that restricts presidents from firing independent agency commissioners at will.

Sen. Cory Booker, one of the lead Democratic negotiators, said he is not convinced by the White House’s assurances.
“This is a major expansion of presidential power,” he told Decrypt. “We’ve already seen how Trump used this authority, in ways that benefited his allies and in deeply troubling ways.”

Critics Warn of Threats to Privacy and Competition

Beyond political concerns, industry experts warn the bill could reshape the crypto landscape in ways that disadvantage smaller builders.

Kadan Stadelmann, CTO of Komodo, cautioned that the proposal risks turning digital assets into a surveillance tool.
“The transparency language hides what would become large-scale data collection, identity verification, and sweeping financial reporting,” he said. “That benefits large, well-funded crypto companies, not the startups driving innovation.”

Ultimately, he argued, the bill risks cementing centralization under the guise of regulatory clarity.

A Pivotal Moment for U.S. Crypto Policy

If the Senate moves forward in January, the U.S. stands closer than ever to implementing a federal digital asset framework, something industry leaders have long demanded. But partisan divides, privacy debates and uncertainty over the future of regulatory independence suggest a contentious path ahead.

January’s hearing will determine whether the bill moves toward a full Senate vote or whether 2026 becomes yet another year of stalled crypto legislation.