coindesk.com
The Senate Banking Committee won't return to its work on crypto market structure for at least a few weeks, three people familiar with the situation told CoinDesk.
After last week's public pull-out by crypto exchange Coinbase, the committee postponed its plans to hold a markup hearing — where lawmakers could debate and vote on amendments — indefinitely. One individual familiar told CoinDesk that committee Republicans and the White House wanted Coinbase and the broader crypto industry at large to sort out its issues on stablecoin reward provisions with the banking industry before revisiting the provisions.
Bloomberg first reported that the committee might not get back to the bill immediately earlier on Wednesday. According to that report, the committee will instead pivot to housing, following President Donald Trump's recent calls for institutional investors to divest from houses and otherwise reduce the cost of housing.
The Banking panel's work might not affect the Senate Agriculture Committee's efforts. That committee published its own version of the market structure bill on Wednesday. However, industry insiders earlier told CoinDesk they feared this might be a partisan bill that lacks Democrat support.
Senator John Boozman, the Agriculture Committee's chairman, seemed to confirm that fear in a statement on Wednesday, where he said that he appreciated his counterpart on working on the bill, Senator Cory Booker, but that "differences remain on fundamental policy issues."
"Although it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t reach an agreement, I am grateful for the collaboration that has made this legislation better. It’s time we move this bill, and I look forward to the markup next week,” Boozman said.
While the committee can still advance the bill to the full Senate, the bill will need both Democrats' support and the Banking counterpart before it can continue past that legislative step.
Patrick Witt, the White House's executive director for the President's council on digital assets, took aim at industry critics of the bill, saying in a post on X, "it's a question of when, not if," a crypto market structure bill passes but that a future Democrat version might be worse than the current version under the GOP trifecta.
"You might not love every part of the CLARITY Act, but I can guarantee you’ll hate a future Dem version even more," he said. "Let’s keep working to improve the product, recognizing that compromises will need to be made in order to get 60 votes in the Senate, but let’s not let perfect be the enemy of the good."
One of the individuals following the process said they would not be concerned if the Banking Committee still passed its version of the bill by Memorial Day in late March, and the overall Senate passed the legislation by around July 4. This timeline would still give the House of Representatives enough time to pass the legislation in September or during the lame duck session after this year's midterm election.
UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2026, 01:09 UTC): Adds additional detail on possible timeline, Witt's tweet.