Senate Banking Committee member Bill Hagerty said Monday that a path forward for digital asset market structure legislation could emerge within weeks, following months of delays in Congress. Speaking at the Digital Assets and Emerging Tech Policy Summit at Vanderbilt University, the Tennessee senator said Republican lawmakers plan to move the bill through the banking panel beginning as early as next week. He expressed optimism that the committee markup could be completed over the coming work period. “We will be in a position, I hope, to bring all of this together very soon,” Hagerty said.
Originally titled the CLARITY Act when it passed the House of Representatives in July, the legislation is regarded by many lawmakers and industry figures as one of the most consequential pieces of crypto policy to date. The bill is designed to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the United States. A central feature of the proposal would shift primary market oversight largely from the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The bill has faced repeated delays stemming from government shutdowns, industry objections over stablecoin yield, and ethics concerns.
Because both the SEC and the CFTC are involved, the legislation requires approval from two Senate committees — the Senate Agriculture Committee and the banking committee. The agriculture panel advanced its version of the bill during a January markup. However, the banking committee has yet to hold its own markup, which is required before any potential floor vote in the full Senate. Disputes over tokenized equities, ethics provisions, and stablecoin yield have contributed to the holdup on the banking side.
Hagerty also framed the timeline in terms of the approaching election cycle, suggesting that passing the bill in April would allow Congress to resolve the matter well before the 2026 midterms. “I think if we get this done in April, we can clearly get this taken care of before the midterms,” he said. His remarks aligned with recent comments from Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal, who said last week that lawmakers were “close to a deal” on stablecoin yield and other outstanding issues in the market structure bill.
The political stakes surrounding the legislation are considerable. According to Stand With Crypto, a Coinbase-backed advocacy group, how lawmakers vote on the bill could affect their electoral prospects in the 2026 midterms, positioning crypto interest groups to potentially influence another major national election. The crypto-backed political action committee Fairshake, which reported spending more than $130 million on media buys during the 2024 elections, announced in January that it had assembled a $193 million war chest ahead of November 2026.
Other politically active groups aligned with the crypto industry are also mobilizing. The Fellowship PAC claimed to have raised over $100 million from undisclosed backers connected to the crypto sector and announced the appointment of Tether executive Jesse Spiro as its chair. The growing financial firepower of these groups underscores the industry’s intent to remain a significant force in shaping federal policy. Whether the banking committee markup proceeds on Hagerty’s proposed schedule remains to be seen, but the senator’s public comments signal renewed momentum after a prolonged legislative standstill.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
