Lummis Predicts Crypto Market Structure Bill Will Pass This Year

Sen. Cynthia Lummis said Wednesday that Congress will pass major legislation setting up market rules for digital assets this year.

Key Senate Republicans released a discussion draft of digital asset market structure legislation last month, which is intended to build on the House-passed CLARITY Act (H.R.3633) that would set rules for crypto tokens and exchanges.

Lummis, speaking at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, said she expects the crypto market structure bill to advance out of the Senate Banking Committee by the end of September, and then the Senate Agriculture Committee will work on its commodities portion of the bill through October.

“We will have market structure to the president’s desk before the end of the year, I hope it’s before Thanksgiving,” said Lummis, (R-Wyo.), who chairs the first-ever Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets. “We will have market structure done this year.”

Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said this week that there are between 12 and 18 Democrats in the chamber open to voting for the digital asset market structure legislation, even though it’s facing opposition from the top Democrat on the committee. The legislation — which is key to the crypto industry since it would lay out how the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversee the market — would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster on the Senate floor.

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Lummis said she expects the Senate would use the CLARITY Act as the base bill and then use a manager’s amendment to wrap in all the upcoming changes from the Senate’s banking and agriculture committees.