Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee John Boozman, R-Ark., said he was “very confident” of reaching an agreement in the Senate — probably this year — on a cryptocurrency market structure bill, even after Democrats backed away from supporting the version advanced by his committee last week.
“Everyone is working really hard right now and I think going through committee has kind of shown that we can build momentum and that’s been a good thing,” Boozman said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC.
Boozman’s committee worked to create a national regulatory structure under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for this growing industry. The next step would be for the Senate Banking Committee to approve its version of a crypto market structure bill. This committee’s hearing on the text was postponed from January 15 at the last minute after opposition from the crypto industry.
The Republican senator had worked with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., on a bill last year. Booker distanced himself from the version the Senate Agriculture Committee voted on, saying during the Jan. 29 hearing that the measure differed from the bipartisan version presented by the committee in November. Booker’s office said the senator was not available for an interview.
During the hearing, Booker said Democrats’ concerns about the bill include President Donald Trump “making fun of crypto himself,” which he called “ridiculous.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Democrats’ concerns. In earlier statements, a White House spokesperson told CNBC that “there were no conflicts of interest.”
During the hearing, Democrats proposed amendments that would have included banning public officials — including the president — from engaging in the crypto industry, preventing crypto ATM scams and combatting foreign adversaries’ involvement in digital products. None have been approved.
On January 29, the Agriculture Committee voted along party lines to advance its version of the bill. The legislation builds on the bipartisan CLARITY Act, the crypto market structure bill passed by the House of Representatives last summer.
Boozman said negotiations resumed immediately after his committee’s hearing.
“We had our margin and we literally didn’t miss a thing when it came to working with our Democratic colleagues to find solutions to these problems,” he said.
Boozman spoke with CNBC the same week as President Donald Trump’s crypto adviser Patrick Witt led a meeting between banking industry and crypto executives about how to resolve points of contention in creating a crypto market structure bill.
Two crypto industry sources close to the meeting told CNBC that the discussion mainly focused on whether digital asset companies should be allowed to offer users stablecoin rewards, which banks opposed, saying the rewards are too similar to interest payments, which was prohibited in previous legislation. They came away with the feeling that some banks were unwilling to compromise on this issue. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to describe Monday’s closed-door meeting.
One of the main reasons Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said he couldn’t support the Senate Banking Committee’s text was “drafted amendments that would remove rewards on stablecoins, allowing banks to ban competitors.”
The White House has given participants a deadline to reach a compromise on stable coin yields before the end of the month, the sources told CNBC.
After Monday’s meeting, in a joint statement, banking industry participants said their goal was to ensure legislation protects the security of the financial system, adding that banks of all sizes will continue to contribute to the development of policies regarding digital assets.
Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, said in a statement after the meeting that it was an “important step in finding solutions to achieve bipartisan legislation on the structure of the digital asset market.”
Boozman called the issue of stablecoin rewards a “significant controversy” and said he believed the concerns of the crypto and banking industries on the issue were “legitimate.”
“I think we will find a compromise on both sides,” Boozman said. “It may not be exactly what both sides want, but the key is to find something that both sides can live with and that’s what we’re working really hard for.”
CNBC Emily Wilkins contributed to this report.
