The crypto industry is still chewing over the sudden delay of the Senate Banking markup on the market structure bill, with opinions split on the contentious issues. The White House, however, isn't mincing words, accusing Democrats of acting in 'bad faith' and being ready to gut the bill even before the postponement. Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, stated that 'Senate Banking Democrats were prepared to vote unanimously against a bipartisan bill that included so many concessions to them that it ultimately cost industry support. Bad faith.'
The delay has certainly stirred the pot. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pulled support for the draft just hours before the original January 15 schedule, citing 'too many issues' like stablecoin rewards limitations and a de facto ban on tokenized equities. He argued the current status quo is preferable to the text, saying they'd rather have 'no bill better than a bad bill.' In a CNBC interview, Armstrong doubled down, noting, 'The high-level principle is that you can’t really have banks come in and try and kill their competition at the expense of the American consumer.' He added that the delay could open a window for improvements.
Policy analysts are weighing in on the path forward. Jake Chervinsky, CLO at crypto VC Variant Fund, suggested removing one of the contested issues—tokenized securities—from the bill to boost its passage odds. But not everyone agrees. Miles Jennings, Head of Policy and General Counsel for VC firm a16z, pushed back on Chervinsky’s proposal and the idea that the SEC won’t have oversight. 'No one was proposing to make this trade. Nothing in market structure prevents tokenized securities. Simply restating the law does not change the law.'
Meanwhile, speculation swirls that the Senate Banking Committee might handle its markup before the Senate Agriculture Committee—which oversees the CFTC and commodities aspects of the bill—pushes its process to the last week of January.
