Points of Focus 

• Bipartisan Senate Banking Committee meeting advances crypto market structure bill.  
• Markup vote set for January 15, 2026 with refreshed draft text expected soon.  
• Builds on GENIUS Act, Selig confirmation, and push for jurisdictional clarity.

A bipartisan group of U.S. Senate Banking Committee members met on January 7, 2026, to discuss crypto market structure legislation, with Senator John Kennedy confirming to reporters that a markup vote is scheduled for January 15, stating: “My understanding is that the chairman is gonna have a vote, come hell or high water, on Thursday for the next week.”

Punchbowl News reported that Senator Catherine Cortez Masto left the meeting carrying a binder labeled “Market Structure Draft,” pointing to active negotiations on a refreshed bill text expected to be circulated before the markup. Senator Masto confirmed bipartisan input, describing it as a positive sign of cross-party cooperation on digital asset regulation. The current draft, last publicly released several months ago, is unlikely to reflect the evolving consensus.

PAY ATTENTION:

🇺🇸 January 15 is now the target date for the Senate Banking Committee to mark up crypto market structure legislation.

Translation:
The U.S. is finally moving from noise to lawmaking.

Token rules. Stablecoins. DeFi structure.
All entering the voting phase for the… pic.twitter.com/x8WiYD0Qn5

— Merlijn The Trader (@MerlijnTrader) January 3, 2026

Key points to be addressed

The January 15, 2026 markup of the crypto market structure bill is expected to zero in on the key fault lines that stalled earlier versions in 2025.

First, senators will tackle the treatment of DeFi under federal law, debating whether certain protocols should be exempted from traditional registration requirements.

Sandy Kaul: The CLARITY Act could burst open the doors for younger investors ready to explore investing natively on-chain.@paulbarron | @paulbarrontv #clarityact pic.twitter.com/6FOA8snnyA

— Franklin Templeton Digital Assets (@FTDA_US) December 31, 2025

Second, the committee will work to sharpen the jurisdictional line between digital assets that fall under SEC oversight and those that belong to the CFTC’s domain.

Third, stablecoin rules continue to be contentious, particularly around whether issuers should be permitted to offer rewards or yield-like incentives to users.

Progress on the bill follows the GENIUS Act’s July 2025 passage and recent CFTC Chair Michael Selig’s confirmation, which has accelerated momentum for comprehensive market structure legislation. Industry groups already view the January 15 markup as a critical step toward ending regulatory uncertainty that has driven much activity offshore.

🇺🇸 US SENATE AG COMMITTEE HAS RELEASED CRYPTO MARKET STRUCTURE DRAFT BILL.

Here’s what’s inside: 👇

➯ Digital Commodities Definition

The draft formally defines digital commodities and gives the CFTC primary authority over their trading, ending the years-long turf war with… pic.twitter.com/s1k25UVwEf

— Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio) November 11, 2025

A potential political path for the CLARITY Act?

The CLARITY Act could advance out of the Senate Banking Committee even on a party-line Republican vote, though that would make its path forward significantly more difficult. Once combined with the Senate Agriculture Committee’s portion of the bill, the final package would still need 60 votes on the Senate floor to overcome a filibuster, making bipartisan support essential for passage. 

Before the December 2025 recess, Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott reported that negotiations with Democrats had made “strong progress,” and several industry participants who met with lawmakers expressed cautious optimism heading into 2026.

What will the bill change?

If passed, the market structure legislation would establish a federal framework for digital asset markets, moving away from years of enforcement-led regulation toward clear rules and registration pathways. The bill would define which tokens are classified as securities/SEC jurisdiction or commodities/CFTC oversight, outline specific registration requirements for crypto exchanges and brokers, and grant regulators explicit authority to supervise spot crypto trading.

Supporters of the bill argue that the proposed changes would significantly reduce legal uncertainty, bolster consumer protections, and enhance the United States’ competitiveness against jurisdictions that have already implemented unified crypto regulatory frameworks.

January 15, 2026, now represents a pivotal moment for the bill. A successful markup would mark a major step toward bringing comprehensive U.S. crypto regulation into reality. Another failure, however, would highlight the persistent difficulty of achieving bipartisan consensus on digital asset legislation.