US Senate Majority Leader John Thune has reportedly said he doesn’t expect the House to advance legislation to create a market structure for digital assets until April.
According to a Thursday Punchbowl News report, Thune said the Senate plans to prioritize voting on the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require voters to present proof of U.S. citizenship in person to register.
The majority leader told reporters Thursday that the bill will be sent to the House next week, adding that lawmakers will focus on the crypto market structure bill and other bipartisan bills after voting on the SAVE America Act.
“Market structure is a bill that I hope will come out of the Banking Committee very soon, probably before, I would say not the April period,” Thune said, according to Punchbowl.
The majority leader’s comments contradicted comments by Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, who said in February that he hoped the market structure would pass Congress by April. The Senate Agriculture Committee has already advanced a version of the bill, but the Senate Banking Committee has delayed a January markup to consolidate the legislation before a vote.
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In separate action, the Senate voted on Thursday to amend the House Bill, the 21st Century Pathway Act, which would prohibit the US Federal Reserve from issuing central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. If passed and signed into law, the CBDC ban will remain in effect until December 2030.
What is at stake in the Market Structure Bill?
The legislation, known as the CLARITY Act when it passed the House of Representatives in July, is expected to give the U.S. Financial Futures Trading Commission, the financial agency that oversees yields and commodities, more authority to oversee digital assets. However, many lawmakers in the Senate disagree with key provisions of the bill, including tokenized shares, ethics and stablecoin revenue.
Last week, US President Donald Trump accused banks of holding the project “hostage” in his social media posts. Although the White House has held three meetings between representatives of the crypto and banking industries, it was not clear as of Thursday that politicians had reached any agreement that would allow the market structure project to move forward.
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