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A severe winter storm in the US has thrown a critical legislative process concerning the cryptocurrency market into uncertainty.
The markup hearing scheduled for this week by the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee on a bill regulating the cryptocurrency market may be postponed due to heavy snowfall and icy conditions hitting Washington D.C.
Officials said the Senate canceled its scheduled Friday vote session as a precautionary measure due to adverse weather conditions, and committee members would only begin returning to the city on Tuesday afternoon. The meeting is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. local time, but nationwide flight cancellations and delays are making it difficult for all members to be present on time.
Another factor increasing uncertainty is that the bill remains partisan. Despite two weeks of additional negotiations, only Republican committee members have so far openly supported the bill. These negotiations led to the postponement of the meeting originally scheduled for January 15th.
The crypto sector generally views the latest text released last week positively. In particular, regulations protecting non-custodial software developers and infrastructure providers were welcomed by the sector because the regulation focuses on intermediaries rather than protocols or users. Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger stated that the Democrats’ objections largely stem from differences in approach to decentralized finance (DeFi), describing it as more of a “difference in information and understanding.”
On the other hand, new amendments were also introduced before the committee hearing on Friday. Among these, the bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act, supported by Senators Roger Marshall, Dick Durbin, and Peter Welch, stood out. This regulation aims to require major banks to include at least two independent payment networks besides Visa and Mastercard on their credit cards.
This law, which has been discussed in various versions since 2022, has previously been attempted to be added to the list of “mandatory” legislation, but without success. This time, however, it has the explicit support of Donald Trump. In early January, Trump announced his support for the bill as part of his goal to limit credit card interest rates. However, representatives of the crypto sector are concerned that adding a regulation not directly related to crypto to this sensitive bill could weaken the support of some senators.
In light of all these developments, it remains unclear whether the committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday will take place and whether the proposed amendments will be put to a vote.
*This is not investment advice.