US Senate Proposes New Crypto Regulations
The U.S. Senate has introduced a new bill to structure crypto markets and published a separate draft bill proposing trading limits for certain digital assets. Concurrently, a scheduled markup vote on the CLARITY Act, another crypto regulation bill, was cancelled, adding to regulatory uncertainty. The new legislative efforts address exchange registration, stablecoin oversight, and consumer protections.
- The "Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act" (DCIA) was recently advanced by the Senate Agriculture Committee on a party-line vote, marking the first time a crypto market structure bill has cleared a Senate committee. This legislation would grant the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) new regulatory authority over digital assets defined as commodities. - A key point of contention in the broader crypto regulation debate is the treatment of stablecoin yields. A draft bill from the Senate Banking Committee includes a provision that would prohibit digital asset service providers from offering interest to users for holding stablecoins, a measure that has created a standoff between banking and crypto industry executives. - The cancelled markup vote was for the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which passed the House of Representatives in July 2025 and is now under consideration by the Senate. This bill aims to provide jurisdictional clarity by giving the CFTC authority over "digital commodities" while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) retains oversight of digital assets offered as securities. - These legislative efforts build upon the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which was signed into law in July 2025. The GENIUS Act created the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the U.S. - One of the bill's sponsors, Senator John Boozman, proceeded with the committee vote despite losing the bipartisan support of Senator Cory Booker, who cited that Republicans had walked away from previous agreements. Democrats on the committee unsuccessfully attempted to add amendments that would ban public officials from engaging in the crypto industry. - Consumer protection proposals within the new bills would require exchanges to use qualified digital asset custodians, segregate customer funds from their own, and would generally be prohibited from trading against their own customers. - Previous related legislative proposals, such as the Lummis-Gillibrand "Responsible Financial Innovation Act," have included specific tax provisions, such as exempting crypto transactions from capital gains taxes if the gain is less than $200.
