The Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act passed the thrilling test! Booker angrily blasted Trump for making billions of dollars

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The Senate Agriculture Committee passed the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act by a vote of 12-11, but all three amendments were rejected. Booker angrily criticized the Trump family for making billions of dollars but pushing for legislation without moral provisions, and the moral and bailout prohibition amendments have not passed. The bill gives the CFTC regulatory powers, but it needs to be merged with the Banking Committee version before it can be submitted to a full House vote.

The 12-to-11 partisan vote reveals deep divisions

! [Senator Cory Booker speaks at the deliberation session] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-87a9b3933a-44a92b450d-8b7abd-e2c905.webp)

(Source: Senate Agriculture Committee)

U.S. lawmakers began pivotal deliberations on a long-awaited crypto market structure bill on Thursday morning, marking a crucial step in Congress toward clearer rules for the digital asset market. The bill, which has been months in the making, comes after ongoing pressure from the cryptocurrency industry and some lawmakers to move away from the enforcement-led regulatory model.

In just about an hour, the Senate Agriculture Committee voted on three amendments, all of which were not passed due to partisan differences. The committee voted 12-11 to pass the Digital Asset Market Structure Act, allowing it to be referred to the Senate plenary session for a vote. Lawmakers from both parties pointed out that the committee needs to merge the draft bill with the draft bill under consideration by the Senate Banking Committee before it can be voted on.

This one-vote approval highlights the controversial nature of cryptocurrency regulation in American politics. Republican lawmakers generally support giving the crypto industry greater regulatory clarity and room for growth, while Democratic lawmakers are concerned about inadequate consumer protection, conflicts of interest, and excessive concentration of regulatory power. The 12-11 vote showed that no Democratic lawmakers voted in favor of it across party lines, and this partisan barrier would make the bill more challenging for a full Senate vote.

Commission Chairman John Boozman issued a statement after the vote: “This is a crucial step towards establishing clear rules for the digital asset market. Advancing this bill brings us one step closer to establishing a U.S. regulatory framework that protects consumers while fostering innovation and businesses in the United States.” However, veteran Democratic member Amy Klobuchar has reservations, emphasizing that the bill needs more bipartisan consensus before it can truly be implemented.

“Consolidating this content with the text of the Banking Commission — and doing it in a bipartisan manner — is the only way to complete this resolution,” said Kevin Vysoki, head of digital policy at Anchorage, in a statement shared with Cointelegraph. This view reflects a widespread concern in the industry that a bill supported solely by a single party could be at risk of being overturned after a change of government.

The political wrestling of the three amendments

Lawmakers voted on three amendments to the Crypto Market Structure Act, but all of them failed to pass due to partisan differences. During the deliberations, Democrats pushed for bipartisan solutions and ethics provisions to address potential conflicts of interest.

The committee voted 12-11 to reject an amendment proposed by Democratic Senator Michael Bennett, deciding not to include ethics provisions in the Crypto Market Structure Act. The amendment was originally intended to prohibit elected officials from holding digital assets. The failure of this amendment has sparked intense controversy, as the Trump family’s massive profits in the crypto industry have become an open secret.

Lawmakers also voted partisan to reject the amendment proposed by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin. Durbin suggested that federal agencies “shall not provide financial assistance to digital asset commodity intermediaries to prevent them from going out of business or going bankrupt.” Durbin noted that the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX led to the bankruptcies of Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Bank. Boozman retorted: “There is no provision in the bill that authorizes the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to provide assistance to intermediaries in the event of bankruptcy, and there is no need to make specific prohibitions.”

Vote on the three amendments

Ethics Clause Amendment (Bennett): Prohibiting elected officials from holding digital assets, vetoed 12-11

Rescue Prohibition Amendment (Durbin): Prohibits federal agencies from providing financial assistance to crypto intermediaries, partisan vote vetoes

Bipartisan cooperation clause: Requesting merger with the Banking Commission, which was not passed but was recognized by both parties as a necessary step

Booker angrily blasted the Trump family for billions of dollars in profit corruption

Senator Cory Booker said, “We don’t want to criminalize the person who wrote the code,” which is an important protection of the bill. However, Booker expressed disappointment with the lack of bipartisan cooperation in the latest version of the bill, which pales in comparison to the draft he and Boozman released last November. Booker said he was communicating with various stakeholders until Wednesday night to discuss terms on decentralized finance and criticized US President Donald Trump for interfering in cryptocurrency legislation.

“The White House has made this extremely difficult… Donald Trump himself is also scamming in the cryptocurrency space,” Booker said, adding: “It is utterly ridiculous that the president of the United States and his family have made billions of dollars from this industry and are still trying to build a framework here that lacks a moral code that would have prevented such serious corruption in our country.”

This speech reveals the core contradiction in the deliberations of the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act: How to ensure the fairness of the rules when the rulemakers themselves are heavy participants and beneficiaries of the industry? According to a Financial Times survey, the Trump family has made more than $1 billion in profits over the past year through crypto projects such as Meme Coins and World Liberty Financial. This conflict of interest makes the legitimacy of any crypto legislation backed by the Trump administration questionable.

Democratic Senators Adam Schiff and Elisa Slotkin emphasized the need for bipartisan cooperation during their testimony to the Agriculture Committee. Slotkin also expressed concerns about national security and the CFTC’s leadership, which was supposed to consist of five people but is currently only chaired by Michael Selig. Slotkin said: “Putting the responsibility for oversight of this bill in the hands of a person who has publicly stated at our committee’s confirmation hearing that he is very supportive of the cryptocurrency industry makes it impossible to believe that we can properly and balance oversight a completely new issue.”

The industry welcomes it, but the merger of the two parties is still a hurdle

“The Senate is fully committed to enacting the right market structure legislation, and we thank all lawmakers and stakeholders in the crypto community for their time and effort to get us to where we are today,” said Mason Linno, community director of the digital asset advocacy group Stand With Crypto.

“This bill will give the CFTC regulatory authority over the spot market for digital commodities, establish clear rules for intermediaries, and provide strong consumer protections, including listing standards, information disclosure requirements, and protection of customer property,” Kim Ji-hoon, CEO of the Crypto Innovation Council, said of the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act. “We are close to the finish line, and now is the time for leaders from both parties to come together to get this done,” said Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of the National Association of Venture Capital.

Although the industry generally welcomes the bill’s passage through committee deliberations, the road ahead is still full of challenges. The bill still needs to be merged with the version being considered by the Senate Banking Committee, which was previously delayed due to Coinbase’s withdrawal of support. The drafts of the two committees disagree on core issues such as the division of regulatory powers, DeFi definitions, and stablecoin regulations, and the merger process could be protracted.