Key Takeaways
- We will be in a position, I hope, to bring all of this together very soon,” Bill Hagerty said.
- “My expectation is that we get it into committee in this next work period that starts on Monday of next week, so that over the next several weeks we should have this into the banking committee,” he added.
Amid widespread criticism, US Senate Banking Committee member Bill Hagerty said on Monday he expects a potential path for a digital asset market structure bill in the coming weeks after months of delays in Congress.
He made the comment while speaking at the Digital Assets and Emerging Tech Policy Summit at Vanderbilt University. Hagerty reportedly stated fellow Republican lawmakers planned to move the bill through the banking panel starting next week.
“We will be in a position, I hope, to bring all of this together very soon,” he said, “On the banking committee side, I think we’re very close, and my expectation is that we get it into committee in this next work period that starts on Monday of next week, so that over the next several weeks we should have this into the banking committee.”
He added: “There’re several issues still outstanding, I think none of them are insurmountable and we will get to a point I believe in April that we’ll have it out of the banking committee. There’s still a lot more work to do.”
“We’re going into the midterms(elections). I think if we get this done in April, we can clearly get this taken care of before the midterms,” he added
The act passed the House of Representatives in July. The Agriculture Committee, which oversees commodities, advanced its version of the bill in a January markup, but concerns over tokenized equities, ethics and stablecoin yield have delayed consideration in the Banking Committee, which must hold a markup before a potential floor vote in the Senate.
Banking industry officials have long raised concerns over stablecoin yield programs competing with bank deposits, arguing that it would threaten financial stability.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump had hit out at banks accussing them of undermining efforts to pass crypto market structure legislation. He had alleged that the banks were blocking progress over disagreements on stablecoin yield payments. “The Banks should not be trying to undercut The Genius Act, or hold The Clarity Act hostage,” he had stated.
Interestingly, the latest development comes days after Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said the US Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is “moving toward” a markup hearing in the US Senate Banking Committee and hinted that it could eventually move to a floor vote if senators resolve the stablecoin yield dispute and schedule a markup.
