Brief
- Wall Street and crypto groups met privately on Thursday to resolve differences over the Senate’s crypto market structure bill.
- Sources say the “productive” meeting showed signs of progress on the thorny issue of DeFi.
- But the bill is set to face a key vote in the Senate in less than a week, and many are concerned about reaching a deal in time.
A group of rival stakeholders met privately Thursday to resolve disagreements over the crypto market structure bill, as the legislation heads toward a potentially decisive Senate vote scheduled for next week.
The meeting, which was not previously reported, included representatives from SIFMA, a major Wall Street trade group protesting key elements of the bill, and a handful of representatives from the crypto industry, according to sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
A source said Decrypt The meeting offered glimmers of “progress” on the thorny issue of decentralized finance, or DeFi, shorthand for crypto-native applications that enable the exchange of assets without third-party intermediaries.
SIFMA has expressed objections in recent weeks to the bill’s regulatory exclusions for certain decentralized financial services and their developers, the source said. Another source called today’s discussions “constructive” and “productive” on the topic of DeFi.
A source said SIFMA was also lobbying, with the banking lobbyto retroactively ban yield-generating, dollar-pegged stablecoins, which were tacitly authorized by the GENIUS Act – another piece of crypto legislation sign signed into law by President Donald Trump last summer.
When reached by Decrypta SIFMA representative denied that the group had yet “taken a stance on yield-bearing stablecoins” – but did not comment on its alleged DeFi-related concerns regarding the proposed market structure law.
At Thursday’s meeting, crypto policy makers, including a representative from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz and another from the DeFi Education Fund, tried to convince SIFMA to tone down its demands, which have already been partially adopted by top pro-crypto Senate Democrats this week.
Both sides have little time to reach an agreement. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) announced earlier this week that he plans to make a crucial markup of the crypto bill next Thursday, despite concerns industry executives that such an accelerated timetable could blow up months of bipartisan negotiations on the legislation.
Most stakeholders agree that the bill must receive bipartisan support at next week’s committee meeting to have a chance of ultimately passing the Senate.
On Thursday, more than 50 members of the crypto industry trade group The Digital Chamber met with senators and White House officials on Capitol Hill to push for favorable language in the final pre-markup draft of the bill, which is expected to arrive early next week.
A representative of the organization said that the stable yield of the coin and the protection of DeFi software developers, who were criminally prosecuted by both Democratic And Republican administrations in recent years under existing money transmitter laws – were two of the main topics discussed at today’s meetings.
Still, the dynamics weighing on the ongoing negotiations — six days and counting to finalize a complex bill that could reshape the U.S. economy — have left some participants exasperated.
“I just can’t believe we finally have Democrats and Republicans proactively working on something and we’re potentially going to compromise it for an arbitrary timeline,” said one crypto industry insider. Decrypt Wednesday.
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