The Senate Agriculture Committee voted 12-11 along strict party lines yesterday to advance the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act—a landmark moment since no crypto market structure bill has ever cleared a Senate committee before.
The legislation gives the CFTC regulatory authority over digital commodities, defines legal treatment for DeFi protocols, and creates consumer protections including conflict-of-interest safeguards and disclosure requirements.
Democrats attempted to add amendments banning public officials—including the president—from engaging in crypto businesses, citing Trump's World Liberty Financial and $TRUMP memecoin ventures. Chairman John Boozman rejected these as outside the Agriculture Committee's jurisdiction, and all Democratic amendments failed on party-line votes.
The bill now faces a tougher challenge: the Banking Committee must pass its own version addressing stablecoin regulation, particularly whether crypto firms can offer yield—the issue that caused Coinbase to withdraw support. If both committees approve their versions, they'll be merged for a full Senate vote requiring at least seven Democratic votes to pass.
The White House is hosting another meeting next week to broker compromises.