Blockchain Association tells the new Congress crypto rules are unfinished

Democrats are projected to take both chambers of Congress in January, and the Blockchain Association says its agenda stays the same. In a CoinDesk column on 4 November, Lindsay Fraser of the association wrote that the next Congress inherits “an unfinished assignment”: clear and lasting crypto legislation.

The association speaks for more than 100 US crypto companies. Fraser concedes that digital assets have taken on a “partisan veneer”, and she cites an Ipsos survey to argue that ownership crosses party lines:

• 22% of Americans have owned or used crypto;
• 24% of Republicans;
• 21% of Democrats.

Where the bills stand

The GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law, passed with votes from both parties and takes effect in January. The CLARITY Act, the market structure bill, cleared the House with 216 Republican and 78 Democratic votes. In the Senate it lost a procedural vote 49 to 50 on 15 September, 11 short of the 60 it needed.

Three asks for whoever holds the gavel

Fraser lists what the association wants from the 2027 Congress:

• a market structure law that splits oversight between the SEC and the CFTC and gives the CFTC spot markets in digital commodities;
• protection for open-source developers who never hold or control customer funds;
• tax rules that drop reporting on small everyday payments and tax staking rewards when you sell them, as with other newly created property.

Regulators keep moving without Congress. Treasury and the banking agencies are writing the GENIUS rules, and the SEC and CFTC run their own crypto projects.

The lame-duck window

Republicans hold the outgoing Congress until 3 January and could bring CLARITY back in the lame-duck session. They would still need Democratic votes in the Senate. On Wednesday, traders on Kalshi priced the bill’s chance of becoming law before 2027 at 6%.

Bitcoin dipped below $76,000 in Asian trading after the results and climbed back to about $78,000 by the New York morning. André Dragosch, head of research at Bitwise Europe, told Decrypt the Democratic sweep “was largely priced in”.

What it means for you

Elizabeth Warren, a long-time crypto critic, is in line to chair the Senate Banking Committee, which handles market structure. Raj Kamal, chief executive of the payments firm TransFi, told CoinDesk he expects the next CLARITY draft to carry tougher consumer safeguards and limits on stablecoin yield. If you earn interest on stablecoins through a US platform, that clause would set how much the platform may pay you. Fraser’s tax asks, including relief for small payments, would need a separate bill.

This piece summarises an opinion column by the Blockchain Association, an industry lobby group. The views in it are the association’s.