US Senate Crypto Bill Crashes Amid Partisan Gridlock
A landmark US cryptocurrency legislation bill has collapsed in the Senate due to partisan deadlock. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which aimed to establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital-asset markets, failed to secure the 60 votes needed to advance. Senator Elizabeth Warren said the bill posed 'massive risks' and would 'turbocharge President Donald Trump's ability to rake in billions and billions of dollars from crypto.'
The legislation, which divided oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, had passed the House last year and the Senate Banking Committee advanced it on a bipartisan vote in May. However, months of negotiations failed to produce a compromise.
Community banks opposed provisions allowing rewards on stablecoin holdings, arguing they could pull deposits out of traditional lenders and reduce funding available for farmers and small businesses. Several Republican senators also expressed concerns about those provisions, complicating party leaders' efforts to muster support for the bill.
The failure to get a landmark bill through the Senate highlights the challenge facing lawmakers as they turn to technologies evolving considerably faster. Bitcoin dropped sharply, losing around five percent by 1850 GMT to $75,039.