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A committee vote on the long-awaited cryptocurrency market structure legislation was postponed on Wednesday night after a late-night policy debate between members and big names in the industry pulling support from the critical CLARITY Act led to a delay.
The vote to get the bill passed through the Senate Banking Committee was scheduled for Thursday.
Despite the setback, Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., remains optimistic that the bill will eventually cross the finish line. Congress’ top banking leader sat down with Fox News Digital before the vote was canceled, saying the GOP has been working hard to garner bipartisan support for the legislation in committee.
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“We’ve taken over 90 of the Democrats’ priorities, and we’ve filtered them,” Scott told Fox News Digital. “We really have come to the conclusion that [the priorities are] overall good enough to be a part of the process. So we have taken a lot of their input and some of the issues that they were concerned with, we as Republicans were concerned with as well, things like AML, all the money laundering issue being a priority for the Democrats.”
“But it’s also a priority for us because national security is so important to all of us,” Scott added. “Their priorities really met the day, and we were able to invent tougher rules around AML, KYC, knowing your customer, the BSA, things that they were really focused on.”
It wasn’t just bipartisanship that delayed the vote. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who leads the world’s largest crypto exchange, withdrew support from the CLARITY Act “as written.”
Armstrong cited concerns that the bill would ban tokenized equities, restrict DeFi while expanding government access to financial data and reducing privacy, weaken the CFTC in favor of the SEC and eliminate stablecoin rewards in ways that could let banks shut out crypto competition.
White House crypto czar David Sacks weighed in after the vote was postponed, saying the delay should be used by the industry to “resolve any remaining differences.”
“Passage of market structure legislation remains as close as it’s ever been,” Sacks posted to X. “Now is the time to set the rules of the road and secure the future of this industry.”
The White House remains committed to working with Scott, members of the Senate Banking Committee and industry stakeholders to pass bipartisan crypto market structure legislation as soon as possible.
While the specific contents of the legislation continue to be debated, there is broad agreement among money managers inside and outside the crypto space who say that federal intervention is critical not only for the success of crypto, but to promote consumer protection.
“As newer, more fringe industries grow and capital increases, you will have more need and oversight from the regulators,” Dominari Securities CEO Kyle Wool told Fox News Digital. “Not stifling regulations, but regulations to protect the ordinary investor to ensure we have a fair, honest and efficient market for all.”
“This in turn also opens the crypto market to a wider audience and thus befits it more by increasing liquidity and having greater depth,” Wool added. “BlackRock IBIT is a perfect example of this.”
Regulation was passed last year when President Donald Trump signed the landmark GENIUS Act into law, but the market structure bill remains the most important element of establishing a regulatory framework for the crypto industry as a whole.
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Scott told FOX Business he believes the CLARITY Act will become law before the midterm elections.
“President Trump and I have talked seriously about the importance of 2026 being the year of affordability,” Scott told Fox News Digital. “When you look at market structure, the legislation itself, the one thing we can understand is that this is a generational shift in the direction of affordability.”
“We’re talking about creating more access for the average family around the country at lower price points ultimately,” Scott added.
