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Senate Agriculture's crypto market structure draft peppered with Democrat pitches
The latest draft of the major crypto legislation has begun to be targeted with amendments as the Senate Agriculture Committee approaches its hearing next week.
Updated Jan 23, 2026, 10:54 p.m. Published Jan 23, 2026, 10:47 p.m.
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What to know:
- Proposed amendments to the Senate Agriculture Committee's crypto market structure bill have been posted, and the Democrats filing the pitches are seeking to push a number of the points they've sought over months of negotiation.
- Democrat amendments include proposals for banning senior government officials from profiting off of crypto interests and a demand for filling the Commodity Futures Trading Commission before new rules can be put in place.
- The committee's markup hearing for the bill is currently scheduled for next week, though a winter storm threatens the U.S. capital.
Some of the U.S. Senate Democrats in the negotiation over the crypto market structure bill filed requested amendments on Friday, seeking a number of their top policy requests in the draft legislation pushed by Republicans in the Senate Agriculture Committee.
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The draft they're trying to change was unveiled as a partisan effort without Democratic sign-off on Wednesday, so now the lawmakers are trying to insert such things as a ban of the president (and other government officials) profiting off of the crypto sector and a demand that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fill out its slate of commissioners before digital assets rules can go into effect.
The Agriculture Committee is set to hold a hearing next week that could possibly advance the bill to the overall Senate, though many close observers expect the session to be delayed because of the epic snowstorm predicted to strike the Washington area over the weekend.
Still, the Democrats' amendments are on the record now. Senator Richard Durbin is seeking to ban bailouts of digital-asset issuers, for instance. And it's the panel's ranking Democrat, Senator Amy Klobuchar, demanding the quorum of commissioners at the CFTC in a more binding way than in the existing draft bill and Senator Michael Bennet who proposed the anti-corruption effort to limit crypto involvement for senior government officials.
Republican members also pitched changes. such as Senator Tommy Tuberville's prohibition on crypto platforms affiliated with foreign adversaries of the U.S.
The committee is scheduled to mark up the bill, meaning amendments will be considered before a potential vote to further advance the legislation. But the Senate Banking Committee must also advance its own version of the bill — a process that's been met with heated debate that derailed an earlier effort at a markup.
Only after the two committees approve of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act can it be moved toward a vote of the overall Senate.
Read More: Here's why Coinbase and other companies soured on the major crypto bill
