As the House’s efforts continue, lawmakers are poised for committee action on the market structure bill as critics continue to voice concerns about the language.
- A new group called Investors For Transparency is running ads on Fox News during prime time, pushing voters to oppose DeFi language in the Crypto Market Structure Act.
- Lawmakers, TradFi and the crypto industry disagree on how to approach DeFi, with critics saying the phrase weakens consumer protections and widens regulatory loopholes.
- Former federal law enforcement prosecutor Brandon Perry warned that the law could create ambiguity rather than resolve it, delaying regulatory clarity after years of SEC analysis.
An advocacy group this week began airing prime-time Fox News ads opposing DeFi provisions in a pending U.S. crypto bill.
On Friday, crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett said on X that the group Investors For Transparency launched the ad campaign about a week before senators voted on the legislation in the relevant committees.
The ads encourage viewers to contact their senators and support passing crypto legislation without DeFi-related language. According to Terrett, it is still unclear how the DeFi language will ultimately appear in the final text. More clarity is expected on this matter when the Senate Banking Committee releases its portion of the bill ahead of Thursday’s markup, as noted by the committee’s GOP.
DeFi Language Faces Scrutiny Ahead of Senate Markup
The campaign comes as Congress moves closer to committee guideposts on crypto market structure legislation. On Friday, Senator Tim Scott announced that the Committee would hold a markup on January 15.
The Investors For Transparency group believes that the DeFi provisions are insufficient and inadequate under the Clarity Act. Critics say the market structure bill allows many DeFi services to avoid regulatory scrutiny, potentially minimizing customer protections.
Brandon Perry, a former federal agency enforcement attorney, shared with Stocktwits that the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, or Market Structure bill, is “helpful in some ways, but does not eliminate regulatory ambiguity but shifts it. By leaving concepts such as “entrepreneurial or managerial efforts” to future SEC guidance and regulation, the bill risks recreating the same uncertainty through interpretive guidance that industry has seen in through regulation through enforcement” Perry said this could increase regulatory clarity by several years.
Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $90,361, down 0.6% in 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Bitcoin moved from “extremely bullish” to “bullish,” as chatter around the supreme cryptocurrency remained “high” over the past day.
Market Structure Bill
The broader legislative effort is based on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 or the CLARITY Act. The legislation would create a federal framework to oversee digital assets by dividing regulatory authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This will also include establishing regulations for digital products.
The bill is not yet barcoded, meaning it is active, and lawmakers are preparing for committee action, while parallel House efforts are already moving forward on market structure. That would involve a House vote in favor of an industry-developed proposed market structure, Reuters reports.
The bill is being closely watched by DeFi participants because it addresses how non-custodial activities and decentralized protocols could potentially fall under federal market rules.
Read also: Bitwise Reports Bitcoin Is “Significantly Undervalued” in 2026, and the US Job Market Could Be the Answer
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