U.S. Government Shutdown Stretches to Record 36 Days, Continues Risk of Derailing Crypto Bill

NEW YORK — The U.S. government shutdown is now the longest on record, breaking the previous 35-day record on Wednesday as lawmakers continue to be at an impasse over funding the federal budget — an impasse that may be strengthened by Tuesday night's sweeping win for Democrats in an off-year election.

Expectations had been growing that Democrats might give in on their demands and vote to fund the government as soon as this week or early next week without winning concessions in their effort to address healthcare premiums that rose this month. But Tuesday's election may further delay any dealmaking between elected officials, people following the process told CoinDesk, pointing to the amount of support Democrats received above polling expectations. And this delay, by extension, may further push out additional work on crypto market structure legislation.

One individual who works in policy said they expect Tuesday's election results to push back any dealmaking on multiple levels, but a markup on market structure by Thanksgiving was still possible.

Another individual who works in policy similarly said that it would be possible for Congress to pass market structure legislation but it was not likely to happen by the end of 2025 — though they said it is possible this legislation will pass through both houses of Congress by the end of 2026.

As CoinDesk has reported, the longer the shutdown lasts, the slimmer the chances of market structure legislation moving through Congress become. Summer Mersinger, the CEO of the Blockchain Association, said Wednesday that the lengthening shutdown means it was becoming more likely that this bill gets moved to 2026.

Many of the government experts in this arena have been furloughed during the shutdown, leaving fewer people capable of actually crafting the legislative language, people have said.

Patrick Witt, the White House's executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, told an audience at Ripple's Swell conference Wednesday that President Donald Trump still wants to see a final market structure bill on his desk by the end of 2025.

"We're continuing to apply pressure, having regular meetings," he said. "I spend most of my time on Capitol Hill these days, meeting with Senators from both sides to get that done. I'm optimistic that we've seen enough progress recently to where the trend line is moving in the right direction."

The government shutdown helped in a sense, he said on stage and in a later conversation with CoinDesk TV, in that it allowed lawmakers time to meet with his team to discuss the details in the bill.

"We've had an opportunity to really engage with offices [and] staffs and members on the substance of this bill in a way that we might not have otherwise been able to, had there been a bunch of other competing priorities," he said.