Crypto Market Bill Set to Advance Thursday as Democrats Settle Key Concerns

The crypto market structure bill could finally make some headway amid positive developments that came about over the weekend. The Democratic Senators have agreed not to raise some of the key issues in the upcoming markup session.

Democrats Show Bipartisanship Ahead of Crypto Market Bill Markup

As reported by Politico, the top Democrat Senators have made it clear that they would not try to hinder the passage of the bill during the upcoming markup. The names involved include Senator Roger Marshall and Senator Dick Durbin.

After negotiations over the weekend, Sen. Marshall agreed to withdraw his concerns. This was meant to modify policies regarding the swipe fees on credit cards. The Senator had filed an amendment last week to compel payment networks to compete on the fees.

Sen. Marshall and Sen. Durbin have been working on the credit card bill for some time now. They were planning to work this into the crypto market bill. However, he has agreed not to call up the provision on the markup set for this Thursday.

Notably, the crypto bill markup session was initially set to hold today, January 27, but has now been rescheduled to January 29 due to the snowstorm in the country.

However, there are still other amendments that have not been resolved yet. These include antifraud regulations for crypto ATMs, a prohibition on the bailout of crypto issuers, and a couple of others.

According to sources, the White House officials had to intervene in the issue, saying that Marshall’s proposed amendment would have caused the progress of the entire crypto market bill to be at risk.

They added that some Republicans were already set to support Marshall’s proposed legislation on the credit card policy. This would have caused the progress to be set back again.

Senate Sets Markup Just Before a Gov Shutdown

It is worth noting that the Senate Agriculture Committee is committed to resolving this bill just before a possible government shutdown. This is because the deadline is set to expire on Saturday, January 31.

Crypto traders are already factoring in that the funding bill to prevent a shutdown will not be finalized in time. This is why there is a rush and lobbying by Senate members on the progress of the crypto market bill.

At the time of writing this, Senate Democrats are opposing the funding package that could prevent the gov. shutdown. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Saturday that the Democrats will not provide the necessary votes to pass the package that will fund some government agencies.