Democratic Senators Forge Bipartisan Path to Streamline Crypto Market Structure Legislation

Breaking the gridlock—lawmakers cross party lines to push crypto regulation forward.

Bipartisan Breakthrough

Democratic senators are rallying Republican counterparts to fast-track market structure legislation. They're cutting through regulatory ambiguity that's left crypto firms navigating a patchwork of state rules and federal uncertainty.

The proposal creates clear jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC—finally giving exchanges and token issuers predictable operating frameworks. No more guessing which regulator comes knocking.

Streamlined compliance procedures would slash operational overhead for legitimate projects while weeding out bad actors. The bill bypasses years of bureaucratic deliberation by adopting principles from existing financial frameworks.

Market participants get legal certainty—investors get protection—and Wall Street gets another asset class to eventually overcomplicate with synthetic derivatives. Because what's innovation without a little financial engineering?

Expanding CFTC authority

According to a framework shared on Sept. 9, the legislation would provide the CFTC with new registration and enforcement authority over crypto trading platforms, requiring mandatory disclosures and consumer protections.

Under crypto-native business models, the CFTC and SEC would receive expanded funding and authority to regulate custody, margin requirements, and conflicts of interest.

One of the Core components of the proposal is platform regulation, which aims to standardize supervision of crypto exchanges akin to traditional securities exchanges.

The framework calls for dual regulatory approaches, empowering the SEC to integrate tokenized securities into existing disclosure regimes while directing the CFTC to police non-security digital assets.

The proposal also includes provisions preventing public officials from profiting from digital asset projects. It referenced President Donald Trump’s financial entanglements with crypto initiatives and seeks to bar elected officials and their families from issuing or profiting from tokens while in office.

It also mandates disclosure of all digital asset holdings.

Comprehensive rules

Under the proposal, anti-money laundering requirements would extend to all digital asset intermediaries, including foreign entities serving US customers, meaning FinCEN registration and sanctions compliance.

Additionally, DeFi protocols would face scrutiny for compliance vulnerabilities under the proposed oversight model.

The framework preserves GENIUS Act provisions prohibiting stablecoin issuers from offering interest-bearing products while directing regulators to develop new oversight models for decentralized finance protocols. It aims to safeguard traditional markets from the destabilizing effects of unregulated innovations.

The proposal also mandates comprehensive registration and compliance obligations across the digital asset ecosystem to prevent criminal exploitation. It will apply to both centralized and decentralized platforms.

The framework requires cross-party commissioner quorums for SEC and CFTC rulemaking while enabling rapid hiring of staff with digital assets expertise.

The authors stated the proposal “represents a turning point,” ensuring America leads financial innovation rather than adversaries.