Overview
- Following Thursday’s 15–9 committee vote, the bill now heads to be reconciled with an Agriculture Committee version before a full Senate vote that will require roughly 60 yes votes.
- Draft text creates a federal framework for digital assets by splitting oversight between the SEC and CFTC, adding Treasury rulemaking, and drawing a line on stablecoins by banning deposit‑style interest while allowing narrow activity‑based rewards tied to blockchain participation.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren led Democratic opposition over consumer protection, state preemption and conflicts tied to the president’s crypto interests, and major banking groups objected that the stablecoin rewards carve‑out could pull deposits from banks.
- Markets took the progress as a positive signal, with Bitcoin trading near $81,000–$82,000, crypto‑exposed stocks like Coinbase rising, and spot Bitcoin ETFs logging about $131 million in net inflows on May 14.
- The next phase will test whether leaders can settle ethics and anti‑money‑laundering language and secure cross‑party support, a decision that could give exchanges, brokers, and stablecoin issuers clear operating rules or keep the industry in a gray zone.