Senate Ag Committee Advances CFTC-Focused Portion of Market Structure Bill

The Senate Agriculture Committee, led by Chairman John Boozman, has advanced the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act today, Jan. 29, a step toward establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto.

This development aims to bolster the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) authority in regulating crypto assets and improve consumer protections in the industry.

While the Republican-led committee voted along party lines today, 12-11, the legislation builds on the bipartisan CLARITY Act, which was previously passed in the House in July. It incorporates various provisions negotiated with Senate Democrats, including a clear legal definition of digital commodities and a registration regime for trading platforms.

The bill also mandates coordination between the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and establishes a new funding stream for the CFTC to set up a spot market regulatory regime.

"This is a critical step toward creating clear rules for digital asset markets," said Chairman Boozman, per the Committee's announcement.

The broader crypto market structure bill, known informally as the CLARITY Act seeks to delineate the jurisdictional boundaries between the CFTC and the SEC.

Today’s advancement in the Senate Agriculture Committee comes amidst ongoing discussions in the Senate Banking Committee, where the more comprehensive version of the market structure draft is currently awaiting markup following multiple delays.

As The Defiant previously reported, earlier this month Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has expressed opposition to certain aspects of the draft before the Senate Banking Committee, highlighting restrictions on DeFi and a “de facto ban” on tokenized equities in particular.

This article was generated with the assistance of AI workflows.