Senators suggested changes to stop fake transactions at digital asset kiosks

US Democratic senators drafting legislation on the cryptocurrency market structure filed multiple amendments on Friday, including provisions aimed at curbing conflicts of interest involving officials who profit from the crypto industry.

Senators from both parties have submitted a flurry of changes to the pending bill — popularly known as the CLARITY Act in its current draft — ahead of a key markup session later this month.

Among the most contentious proposals are ethics-focused provisions aimed at curbing potential conflicts of interest among senior government officials. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado was among the lawmakers who sought to add the “Digital Asset Ethics Act” to the bill, an amendment that would bar top officials like the President, Vice President, and members of Congress from certain crypto-related financial transactions. 

Currently, the bill is scheduled for debate in the Senate Agricultural Committee on Tuesday next week.

Senators suggested changes to stop fake transactions at digital asset kiosks

The proposed ethics amendment aims to ease concerns among many Democrats about Trump and his family’s involvement in crypto. Bloomberg puts Trump’s crypto-related earnings at approximately $1.4 billion, driven in part by the DeFi and stablecoin project World Liberty Financial. Not to mention, the president’s family maintains a 20% stake in the mining company American Bitcoin.

Lawmakers also submitted amendments to curb fake transactions at digital asset kiosks, including one from Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., that would hold off a crypto bill until at least four CFTC commissioners are confirmed. The issue has sparked debate among lawmakers, as the CFTC currently has only one commissioner, Chair Michael Selig, out of a possible five, and no more than three can belong to the same political party.

Republicans and Democrats are still split on several fundamental policy issues on the bill, Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, shared Wednesday. He added, however, that he appreciates the teamwork that helped improve the legislation. For the crypto structure bill to pass in the Senate, Democrats must weigh in, since 60 votes are needed, meaning at least 7 Democrats would have to support it, even with all Republicans on board.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand believes the crypto market structure bills will advance

Even though Republicans and Democrats haven’t reached a consensus, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, said she remains hopeful the committee’s updated crypto legislation will move forward.

“Senators have been working on a bipartisan basis for the last six months pretty intensely, and we have two different bills,” Gillibrand told reporters. She argued that both bills, the one under the Agriculture Committee, which oversees the CFTC, and the second bill, still under debate by the Banking Committee, responsible for the SEC and banking regulations, are being advanced together.

The Democratic senator, though not a member of the Agriculture Committee, has been engaged in negotiations on the crypto legislation.

However, the markup hearing on the Senate Banking Committee’s draft digital asset legislation, originally scheduled for Jan. 15, was delayed at the last minute due to opposition from crypto companies such as Coinbase. When asked about the possibility of delays for the Senate Agriculture Committee’s hearing, Gillibrand contended that, despite unresolved bipartisan issues, she expects the markup to go ahead on Tuesday. 

She further asserted that the Agriculture Committee’s draft is still under review and hopes senators will continue to collaborate to amend and improve it. However, she encouraged Senators to look back on some bipartisan compromises they made on an earlier draft of the bill that were later omitted. She said, “My hope is that those senators can get back to the drawing board and try to re-include some of those compromises that I thought were very strong.”  

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