The Senate Agriculture Committee just punched through a critical milestone for crypto regulation, and now the real negotiations begin. Chairman John Boozman is pushing hard to get a comprehensive cryptocurrency market structure bill across the finish line this year, even after Democrats pulled support from the version his committee advanced last week. The stakes are high - this legislation would create the first national regulatory framework under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for an industry that's been operating in a regulatory gray zone for years.
Senator John Boozman isn't wasting time. The Arkansas Republican told CNBC Tuesday he feels "very strongly" about getting crypto legislation through the Senate this year, and he's not letting partisan friction slow things down. His Agriculture Committee voted Jan. 29 to advance a cryptocurrency market structure bill that would hand regulatory authority to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission - but the party-line vote exposed fractures that could complicate the path forward.
"Everybody is really working hard right now and I think getting it through a committee has kind of shown that we can make some momentum," Boozman said in the interview. That momentum matters because the crypto industry has been pushing for regulatory clarity for years, and the window to act may be narrowing.
The committee vote came after Senator Cory Booker, who'd been working with Boozman on a bipartisan draft last year, walked away from the final version. During the Jan. 29 hearing, Booker cited multiple concerns - chief among them that President Trump "is grifting on crypto himself," which he called "ridiculous." The New Jersey Democrat also pointed out the bill differed significantly from the bipartisan framework the committee laid out in November.
Democrats offered amendments during the hearing that would've banned public officials including the president from engaging in crypto, addressed scams linked to crypto ATMs, and tackled foreign adversary involvement in digital commodities. None passed. The White House didn't respond to requests for comment, though a spokesperson previously told CNBC "there are no conflicts of interest."
