The Senate Agriculture Committee just made history, voting 12-11 along party lines to advance the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act - the first time a crypto market structure bill has ever cleared a Senate committee. The measure would hand the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sweeping new authority over digital assets, but it's moving forward without Democratic support after Republicans walked away from a bipartisan draft negotiated just months ago.
The crypto industry just got its biggest regulatory breakthrough yet, but it's coming with serious political baggage. The Senate Agriculture Committee voted Thursday to advance the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, a landmark bill that would establish the CFTC's authority over digital assets for the first time. The 12-11 party-line vote marks the first time any crypto market structure legislation has made it past a Senate committee.
But here's where things get messy. Committee Chairman John Boozman pushed the bill through after losing the Democratic support he'd spent months cultivating. Sen. Cory Booker, who'd worked with Boozman on a bipartisan draft released in November, walked away from the final version entirely. "The product put before us today is not the bipartisan draft that we have been working on," Booker said during Thursday's hearing, according to CNBC's reporting.
The legislation would create a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital commodities. It establishes clear legal definitions, sets up a spot market intermediary regime overseen by the CFTC, and builds in consumer protections including conflict-of-interest safeguards and mandatory customer disclosures. Boozman calls it "a critical step toward creating clear rules for digital asset markets."
The bill builds on the House's CLARITY Act, which passed last summer with bipartisan backing. But what worked in the House is fracturing in the Senate. When lawmakers returned to Washington in January, Booker discovered Republicans were abandoning key provisions from the November draft. "Republican colleagues were walking away from the bipartisan process that produced the draft," he said.
