Key Highlights
- Bill Hagerty said the Senate Banking Committee could take up crypto market structure legislation starting next week.
- He said the bill could clear the committee in April despite unresolved issues.
- The measure remains stalled over stablecoin yield, tokenized equities, and ethics concerns.
US Senator Bill Hagerty said the Senate Banking Committee could begin moving long-delayed crypto market structure legislation as early as next week, signaling what may be the clearest timeline yet for Senate action on one of the industry’s most closely watched bills. Hagerty made the remarks on April 6 at Vanderbilt University’s Digital Assets and Emerging Tech Policy Summit.
“We will be in a position, I hope, to bring all of this together very soon,” said Hagerty, referring to work on the bill in the Senate. “On the banking committee side, I think we’re very close, and my expectation is that we get it into committee in this next work period that starts on Monday of next week, so that over the next several weeks we should have this into the banking committee.”
He added: “There’re several issues still outstanding, I think none of them are insurmountable and we will get to a point I believe in April that we’ll have it out of the banking committee. There’s still a lot more work to do.”
Senate Banking signals progress after months of delays
The Senate Banking Committee has been the main bottleneck for the bill after the House passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 in a 294-134 vote on July 17, 2025. The legislation is designed to define when digital assets fall under SEC oversight and when they should be treated more like commodities under the CFTC, a shift the crypto industry has pushed for over several years.
The Senate Agriculture Committee, which handles the CFTC side of the framework, already advanced its own version in a January 27 markup. But the Banking Committee has yet to complete its markup, leaving the broader market structure package stuck in the Senate despite growing pressure from the crypto sector and its political allies.
Stablecoin yield fight still looms over the bill
The biggest sticking points have centered on stablecoin yield, tokenized equities, and ethics-related provisions. Reuters reported in January that the Senate draft would bar crypto firms from paying interest simply for holding stablecoins, while still allowing certain rewards tied to activities such as transactions or loyalty programs. Those provisions became a flashpoint in negotiations between crypto firms, banks, and lawmakers.
That backdrop helps explain why Hagerty’s latest comments are being read as a sign of movement. Last week, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal also said lawmakers were “very close” to resolving disagreements around stablecoin earnings and other unresolved parts of the bill.
Hagerty also tied the timeline directly to politics, saying, “We’re going into the midterms,” said Hagerty. “I think if we get this done in April, we can clearly get this taken care of before the midterms.”
Also Read: Crypto Lobby Urges SEC Not to Stall Tokenized Market Innovation