The U.S. Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act enters a critical hearing period, with ethics and regulatory authority becoming the biggest point of contention

【ChainNews】The U.S. Congress is advancing a key cryptocurrency market structure bill with a noticeably accelerated legislative pace. The Senate Agriculture Committee plans to release the bill text on January 21, followed by a revision hearing on January 27 — a critical step in pushing the bill forward. The originally scheduled hearing on January 15 (Monday) has been postponed and will now be held at 3 PM.

During the hearing, lawmakers will debate various amendments, then vote on whether to incorporate these amendments into the base text, and finally vote again to determine whether to send the entire bill to the full Senate for consideration. Meanwhile, the Senate Banking Committee is also working on its version, with a revision hearing scheduled for this Thursday. Notably, the draft bill from the Banking Committee was published around midnight on Monday, but lawmakers are expected to submit amendments before the official hearing.

However, the bill’s progress is not without obstacles. The Agriculture Committee has yet to release an official text, mainly due to two unresolved issues: first, the ethical standards clause (which involves the relationships between certain political figures, their associates, and multiple crypto companies), and second, the quorum rules (requiring the SEC, CFTC, and other regulatory agencies to be jointly led by bipartisan members, whereas currently these agencies only have Republican members). The Banking Committee’s version also does not include provisions related to ethical standards or quorum rules, which suggests that the current version of the bill may struggle to gain broad support from both parties.