Senate is making progress on market rescue bill, banking panel chairman says

WASHINGTON, DC — A stalled cryptocurrency market rescue bill in the Senate is making progress behind the scenes, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee said Tuesday.

Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the banking committee that oversees the market rescue bill, said at the Digital Chamber’s DC Blockchain Summit that lawmakers could see at least a new draft of the stablecoin language as early as this week.

Scott said stablecoin yields have been the most publicly discussed issue in the market structure bill, but lawmakers are still engaged.

“I believe we will have a first proposal this week that we will look at,” he said. “If that actually happened before the end of this week, and I think it will, we would at least know that the sketch resembles him. If that were the case, I think we would be in much better shape.”

He thanked Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and Patrick Witt of the White House for their work on the yield.

Other outstanding issues have also been negotiated over the past month, he said, noting the cryptocurrency projects of U.S. President Donald Trump and his family, the lack of bipartisan membership on key regulators, and lawmakers’ concerns about know-your-customer rules.

“I think we are very close to reaching a quorum on the ethics issue,” Scott said. “We know it’s a big problem for our friends on the other side, so we’re fixing that too. I think we’re pushing some (candidates) forward, which is good news that we can get some on the other side. I think the DeFi issue is something that (Senator) Mark Warner has a tight grip on. AML (anti-money laundering) is a very important piece, so I think we’re working to fix that.”