Senator Bill Hagerty, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said Monday he expects a path forward for a digital-asset market-structure bill in the coming weeks after months of congressional delay. Speaking at the Digital Assets and Emerging Tech Policy Summit at Vanderbilt University, Hagerty said Republican senators plan to move the measure through the Banking Committee beginning next week.
“We will be in a position, I hope, to bring all of this together very soon,” Hagerty said, adding that he expects the bill to reach committee in the next work period and that it could be advanced out of the Banking Committee in April. He acknowledged several outstanding issues but called them solvable: “There’re several issues still outstanding, I think none of them are insurmountable and we will get to a point I believe in April that we’ll have it out of the banking committee.”
The legislation, known originally as the CLARITY Act when the House passed it in July, is widely viewed as one of the most consequential pieces of U.S. crypto legislation. It would create a broad regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and largely shift market oversight from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Because oversight touches both securities and commodities jurisdictions, the bill requires action from two Senate panels: Agriculture (which handles commodities) and Banking (which handles securities). The Agriculture Committee advanced its version in a January markup; the Banking Committee still must hold a markup before the bill could reach the Senate floor. Key sticking points that have delayed progress include tokenized equities, stablecoin yield rules, and ethics questions.
Hagerty said resolving those differences could let Congress complete work on the bill well ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. His remarks echoed comments from Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal, who has said lawmakers are close to agreement on stablecoin yield and other remaining issues.
The timing has political significance: the crypto industry has been increasingly active in elections and advocacy. Stand With Crypto has warned that lawmakers’ positions on crypto could affect their 2026 prospects. Industry-aligned groups and PACs have spent heavily; reporting cited more than $130 million in media buys in 2024 and noted a reported $193 million war chest as of January ahead of the 2026 cycle. The Fellowship PAC, which has claimed over $100 million raised from undisclosed crypto-aligned backers, recently named Tether executive Jesse Spiro as its chair.
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