"U.S. Senate, partisan differences remain over virtual assets market-structure bill"

Industry leaders reportedly met with U.S. senators to discuss a virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) market-structure bill, but differences between the two parties over the bill remain unresolved.

On the 23rd (local time), Decrypt, citing sources, reported, "Partisan differences over the virtual assets market-structure bill remain. Democrats dislike being pressured on the bill review schedule, but Republicans say, 'If it is not handled in November, it will be impossible to pass within the year.'"

Democratic senators reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with a leaked draft of the bill's DeFi-related provisions. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, Mark Warner, and Ruben Gallego expressed strong regret that the leak was criticized on social media by industry figures.

In addition, New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker reportedly asked industry figures to be more actively supportive of maintaining the bipartisan composition of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This, coupled with concerns that the independence of the two agencies has weakened since the Donald Trump administration, is acting as a key variable in the fate of the market-structure bill.

Meanwhile, the day's meeting was attended by major industry figures such as Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase; Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital; Miles Jennings, head of policy at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z); and Sergey Nazarov, CEO of Chainlink.

Nazarov said of the meeting, "It was encouraging that everyone's understanding of the virtual assets industry has increased, but a government shutdown is the biggest obstacle to the bill's passage." He also added, "There is a perception that Democrats see the industry as an extension of the Republicans, but that is not true. If Democrats support the industry, there will be more people within the industry who support the Democrats."